Gale Warriors
by Mrguy22594
Summary: In the aftermath of Sword Art Online, the world of Gun Gale Online had been quite prosperous... Until one man with a ridiculous sounding name actually killed someone in game. However, instead of Kirito going in... It's another survivor of SAO by the name of Syber...
1. Dystopia, WITH GUNS

The following is a non-profit Fanfiction.  
Sword Art Online is owned by Aniplex, A-1 Pictures and Reki Kawahara.  
Please support the official release...

Gale Warriors: Gun Gale Online Chapter 1: Dystopia, WITH GUNS!

In the year 2025...a lot has changed, actually. For one, the world has become quite a technological marvel, to the point Virtual Reality (VR) has become a commercial reality, even if mostly just in Japan. Sad to say, however, that it's conception was far from pretty: the first (fully) functional VR application was a MMORPG known as Sword Art Online.

Three years ago, a Game Dev with possibly the sickest sense of humor lured 10.000 people inside SAO and rigged their NerveGears, these helmet-looking devices people used to play the game, to fry their user's brains if they died in-game, effectively killing them in real life as well. Furthermore, since neither logging out nor pulling the NerveGear off of people's heads were valid options, players were stuck with no way out until the Final Boss was found and defeated, which took a little over two years. Unfortunately, even after the game was finished, 300 of the 6.000 players who survived SAO remained trapped in the VR world for reasons unknown, and it wasn't until the "Hero of SAO" dove into another VR game called Alfheim Online (ALO) that this mystery was solved and the evils of Virtual Reality laid to rest...for now.

* * *

In Gun Gale Online...

The world of GGO is one that looks like the apocalypse just came in... And well, let's just say society still moves forward. Even though that society is consisted of people, who simply want to play a popular shooter game with RPG elements. In recent events, the world of Gun Gale had finished with their second Bullet of Bullets tournament. "Welcome back to MMO Stream's This Week Winners," yelled a young woman with a somewhat appealing orange outfit and cat ears, "The corner dedicated to top players of MMOs all over the Virtual World!" Her line was followed by a short opening skit and sponsor names the likes of Pizza Hut and Heatap. "This week's program is about the hottest Shooter VR game around, Gun Gale Online. And here with me are the winner and 2nd place of the last BoB, XeXceeD..." she gestured at the blue-haired guy to the left "...and Yamikaze, the Run 'n Gun Devil!"

She kept shouting her lungs out, hoping to keep everyone watching hooked all the way. "Now first off, let's hear some words from our winner, XeXeeD. Tell us, you seemed to be at quite a disadvantage with your fight against Yamikaze, how did you pull off your amazing victory?" XeXceeD smiled at the question, and while fiddling with his hair responded "You see Julie, Agility builds are so last year! Ya see, the next update's gonna bring some new Assault Rifles with higher DPS rates and there's no way those guys can carry anything heavier than SMGs, let alone take the recoil, unless they got Strength and Vitality. Now those are what's hip these days!" Many people watching the stream from a bar in-game booed at XeXceeD's words. "Eat a Dick!" One of them angrily shouted. The interviewer then said "Now that's the kind of comment I'd expect from GGO's finest! Talk about controversal!" XeXceeD shrugged and responded "Yeah, but who knows if I'll be on MMO Stream again. Might as well stir things up..." Julie then felt quite amused by XeXceeD's reasoning and said "Oh please! So, do you think you have a shot at the upcoming Bullet of Bullets?" XeXceeD couldn't help but answer "Damn right honey! I wouldn't be in it if I didn't!"

The booing got so out of hand some of the angry crowd begun throwing drinks at the screen, despite it being kind of pointless due to "screen" being just hologram in and said drinks just dissipate after being used. "Don't be so sure, XeXceed, BoB is a tournament with no restrictions, so you never know who or what you'll run into..." Yamikaze said to XeXceed, letting him know that he might not be lucky again. "Yeah, well if anything, my victory just proves my point. You're all about AGI and SMGs, Yamikaze, go figure you'd be in denial." Yamikaze cringed at that statement. "Wake up, people! Till now, the best strategy was boosting your AGI and shooting a two-handed SMG as fast as you could. But the reality is that the balance of gameplay in an MMO is always changing! Especially in games like this one, where levels don't let you re-spec your stats. You have to think ahead and be smart about using your points. Cause the best weapon today might not work for you in the update! Besides, Assault Rifles aren't the only new guns with higher STR and VIT requirements on the horizon." He then took a bow, as though he were acting on a stage. That made Yamikaze sigh and think "Was this really the guy who beat me?! I should've just ended him when I had the chance..."

Back at the bar, some people who managed to remain somewhat calm said "You remember when he said how great being AGI-based was? That dick totally scammed us!" Around that same time someone from the berserking mob must've pulled out their gun and shot the projector, which of course did nothing...or so most people would've assumed. "Now then, onto the- Urgh!" XeXeeD's monologue was abruptly cut short by what looked like a sharp pain in his chest before being forcefully disconnected from the game. "Uh oh...I guess we have a really bad connection here... Don't worry folks! I'm sure he'll be back on here shortly! So, stay tuned for more MMO Stream!" Julie said, trying to reassure the audience, sadly to little avail.

The people on that bar however, turned looked for the source of that bullet, a person still pointing his gun to the screen. This guy... or gal? It was anyone's guess thanks to a black robe and skull mask; Heck, as they asked the bartender "Would you mind giving the public a message?" their voice was disguised by a voice modulator. Their freaky appearance and voice scared the living heck out of said bartender, who asked back "W-w-who a-a-are you?!" Given that person did the most unlikely kill in the history of that game, it was obvious that the bartender feared being next; but instead, all they said was "Tell the world of Gun Gale...those who wish to challenge me...will die. As for my name, I share the name of this gun...Death Gun." Those who witnessed that were paralyzed in fearful awe. "Holy shit...he just shot someone on the TV and killed him!" They were saying all sort of things, like "He sounds just like Kylo Ren" or "Nah man, that's obviously Vader." As for this Death Gun, they just ignored the crowd and said "move" to the those standing between them and the door. None of them dared to stand their ground, so the "sea" of powerless peasants opened and the macabre figure took their leave. "Soon, this entire world will know the meaning of fear...just like back then..."

* * *

In the Real World...

After the SAO incident, its survivors had stuff like muscle atrophy and school to deal with. Hence a makeshift school to help those kids catch up was made, though chatter of ulterior reasons has yet to die out, even though it's been over a year since then. Speaking of which...

"Sigh...I really am hopeless." Whined a female teenager in a male high school uniform. "All that time in the gym and strangers still think I'm girl..." ...or not. This trap- I mean, this girly-looking lad, walked away from the aforementioned school, just like a few others heading their own ways around the city. A few moments after he crossed a street, he recieved a text on his phone that said "SAKON, ARE YOU HOME YET?" Naturally he replied "NOT YET, SORRY..." but when he tried calling this number his call was immediately shut down. "JUST CALL YOUR FATHER WHEN YOU GET HOME." They wrote back.

"What did ya do that for?" The punk who was hit asked, but by the time those two realized, Sakon was long gone. "Whoa, that was weird...wait a sec, dude?" The lad helping his 'wounded' friend up remember something "I've heard about that chick before ...I think." However, when the 'wounded' guy inquired further all he got was "Dunno, heard that in class. You know I always nap in class." Which the now black-eyed punk comically nodded about. The girls watching scene from across the street knew a little more though: "...and the 'Ichijou Trap' strikes again, huh?" That name alone did the trick for the dope-looking punk, but of course the one who learned it the hard way still needed an explanation: "Sakon Ichijou, a MALE. Don't worry though, you're only his twentieth or so victim to fall for his ludicrous girl-charm...it's infuriating really..."

* * *

A few minutes later, Sakon's Apartment...

"Hm? What's this?" Sakon found a package and letter with all too familiar stamp waiting outside his front door. He powdered whether to read it or not, but inevitably he figured it was better to know what was that all about. The letter read as such:

"My son.  
I have a small favor to ask: this box here is filled with gifts I recieved, but have no use for; I ask that you have a look inside, see if you want any of it. Perhaps you can keep these from gathering dust in the attic back home? Just remember to keep whatever you don't want until I send someone to take it away. Make sure to let Kyoko know if you decide to use it. Sincerely, Keiji Ichijou... P.S. Your mom and I still miss you."

Sakon opened the package and saw just the usual, some souvenirs, dull-looking shirts, a VR Console and game disk...wait, what? "Nope!" Sakon walked inside and left the box next to his shoes. "What the heck is he thinking? Sending me a VR after what I went through, insensitive prick." He kicked and punched the air around him as he walked into his single-room apartment, a simple room with a lonely bed on the left side, a television and several game systems to the right, among other everyday things.

"Maybe I should play something instead, this tantrum is not helping..." Sakon said to himself before booting up a game. However, as he played an old game called Ghosts and Goblins, he was constantly distracted by the package, sitting by the door and tempting him into doing something stupid. Sadly, despite not being enough to make him give in, it was to get him killed in the game. "Dammit, Arthur!" Sakon shouted before peeking towards the package again. "Hmm... Still no!" He shouted again, before going back to another game but it was useless, that slow temptation to grab that headgear and dive into a VR game was too much for him.

He growled and made a fuss...before picking that box up and knocking on his neighbor's door. "Be there in a moment!" True to her words, the door opened shortly after, this neighbor being a woman in her 30s, dressed in a store clerk's uniform. She also had brunette hair and had a single earring on her left ear. "Oh, Ichijou! How are you?" She asked Sakon, who answered "Mostly fine, Ms. Kyoko, but I'm need your help with something." He showed her the contents of the box.

"Isn't this the Amusphere?" She asked. "Why would Keiji give that to you, didn't you say you'd never play in Virtual Reality again?" Sakon pondered about her words before answering "Knowing him, it's likely his way of telling me to get over it or something along the lines. Only he forgot, I'm done with this sort of nonsense!" Kyoko gave Sakon a long, hard look before asking him a simple question: "...and yet here you are, asking me to check on you every so often, no?" Sakon sighed in defeat and nodded, "Please check every hour...and if I don't take this thing off by 9, call the police."

Kyoko nodded at Sakon's request and told him to be careful. Sakon nodded back and went back to his apartment, then stripped down to his underwear and tanktop before lying on the bed with the headgear and disk in hand. "Can't believe I'm doing this...I must be the biggest moron ever." Despite such words, there he was, following the instructions to set the rig's plugs and slapping the gamedisk in. He then looked at his rather void ceiling from the comfort of his pillow, but before he could say the magic word, a feeling all to familiar came over him. "Really...? It's not even on and I'm already having a panic attack? Just...great." Sakon felt his heart spike, almost like adrenaline, only his eyes and ears were erratic, and it drove him nuts. "...calm down...calm down. Ok, I'm good to go...Link Start!"

* * *

In Gun Gale...

Sakon comes across what appears to be a character customizer, and sees the various options he could take. "Okay then... Let's make this bad boy..." He says before cracking his knuckles and inputting the design of his character. After finishing the customization, with the information regarding his character... He then came up to the name portion. "Hmm... How about something a little nostalgic... S-Y-B-E-R. Syber." Sakon put in as the character's name and now he was known as Syber. He then closed his eyes and waited for the game to show his character. Once he opened his eyes again, he looked upon the world of GGO... Where he was taken by the sights of the game.

"Whoa... Is this what VRMMOs look like these days? I guess at least that's a positive..." Syber said to himself before he took a couple steps into the game. Though, once he took said steps he noticed something when he looked to the left and saw the mirror. "No... No... NO!" He said taking a closer look, and seeing that, even though most of his body looked masculine... He still had that cute face. "Why...? Why this?" Syber muttered before continuing through the area, muttering to himself "Just get through it... It's what your therapist told you that one time..." As he went around GGO, he kept on ignoring the players who were staring at him... Whether it was because they thought he was cute or not, was something he didn't care to know about.

He eventually settled on taking a seat on a bench in the town. He sighed and pulled up the stats on his character, and immediately checked for the logout function. To his relief, it was there. "Phew... At least I know that I can leave this game and get actual sleep." Syber said to himself and looked at his other game stats. "I gotta wonder if AGI is still the most relevant stat. It's enough that speed was a huge factor back then, but is it still a huge factor now?" Syber asked himself, and continued to look through his menus. "I see the menus are still crap..." He muttered. "I gotta wonder... What's a cute guy like yourself doing here in GGO?" Someone asked, before Syber winced and responded angrily "FOR. THE. LAST. TIME! I'M. A. Guuuuuuuuuuuuuyyyyyyy..." He then realized the person called him a guy. The person in question, was a girl around his age with blue hair and eyes, she seemed to wear a scarf along with her green sweater and black pants.

Though she had some square hair clips on both sides of her long hair. Though it was only long on the sides, not the front or back. Syber blinked at the sight of this girl, and blushed in embarassment. His eyes widened and he shouted "I'm sorry! My name's Syber! It's nice to meet you! I didn't mean to shout at you!" She inspected his demeanor and thought to herself "I thought he was gonna be some boring guy... But, this... This'll be fun for sure..." She then said "My name is Sinon... It's nice to meet you Syber." Syber then shook her hand and responded "Could you show me around GGO? I don't know my way around to be honest..." Sinon looked at the gun store and answered "Alright, I'll give you the basics..."

 **To Be Continued...**


	2. The Untouchable Cowboy

The following is a non-profit Fanfiction.  
Sword Art Online is owned by Aniplex, A-1 Pictures and Reki Kawahara.  
Please support the official release...

Gale Warriors: Gun Gale Arc Chapter 2: The Untouchable Cowboy...

"Alright, I'll give you the basics...or so I would say," that Sinon girl dropped the smile and sighed, "but the truth is that, I'm sort of busy right now. And to be honest, I was trying to be coy when I chat you up." That confused the already confused looking boy, but her reason, as she herself would explain next, was simple. "This is my favorite bench in town, I was trying to shoo you away." Though her explanation sounded like it should've made things clear, it didn't quite do it for Syber. "Seriously...? Look, I figured you'd get angry for being called 'cute', which is exactly why I did," she pointed a finger at his face, "but it seems your baby face complex was goes far deeper than I imagined, so...I'm sorry, I guess?" As if implying that was as far as she was willing to explain herself, she did a heel turn and tried to leave.

"Hey wait," Syber asked, "can you at least point me to a tutorial or someplace I can find help? I have no idea where to go from here." Truth be told, she's used to turning people down all the time, so whimpy kid was no problem at all...or so she thought, but when she tried to do so, the words just wouldn't come out. " _What the hell? I've turned countless guys down, but this kid's puppy eyes...ngh..._ " After what looked like annoyance and a bit of shaking to Syber, Sinon finally gave up and agreed to show him around, but on one condition: "I have something to do at the *Governor's Office*, that tall building that looks like a crashed battleship." She pointed towards said building. "You can either come along or get left behind." Syber didn't even think before nodding in agreement, after which she sighed and the two moved along.

Syber continued to take in all the sights of the world around them. From the foggy city, to the large amount of traffic down below... Which reminded him of the business trips he'd have to make with his father. Further down their path, the two came across an odd parking lot full of identical three-wheeled bikes. "A rental service, huh? ...hey, Sinon-" but Sinon said no before he could even finish the question. Naturally he asked why not, her answer was very blunt and summed up: "One of these? We'd crash a dozen times before nailing a sharp turn." But, of course, that wasn't enough of an explanation, not for the ever curious Syber. "Even the highest level players in the game have a hard time with these. Behemoths are high-power, low-handling bikes that take a lot of strength to drive properly. You done asking questions now?" Syber sighs in defeat, then the two continued their walk...until Syber asked more questions. "So... Why can't we just suicide our way to the building?" Her sighs had some minor growling to it now. "The entire city is one huge Safe Zone. You know what those are, right?" While Syber nodded, he also mumbled something about things not changing much and the walk after that was pretty much silent...

* * *

The inside of that building was like a front entrance to some fancy office building, only there was no reception desk and instead of public phones they had sci-fi terminals. Like most people using said terminals, Sinon came all the way here to sign up for an event, a tournament from the sound of it. "BoB... What's that?" Sinon indulged him, but only because she could do so without looking away from the screen. "It's an acronym for Bullet of Bullets. It's basically the tournament to determine who's best player in this game..." Syber raised an eyebrow over that name though. "Um... Isn't that a tad bit redundant for a tournament name? ...I mean, I'm sure that this isn't really a big deal... But, couldn't they have made another name?" He asked about the tournament name, but kept to himself while typing in the info. But, out of curiosity, he then tried to peek at her screen, but she immediately covered his eyes.

"Writing down my real life info, some privacy would be nice." Out of curiosity, he booted the terminal next to hers to see the sign up form. "Wait, why are you doing this from within the game? Shouldn't there be some rule against having players write down real life info in-game?" Right around that time Sinon was done signing up, so at least his questions wouldn't distract her anymore. "You don't know...? Because Gun Gale operates in a Legal Gray Zone, the company that runs the game has no physical address, site or phone number. Everyone and their mothers know GGO might be a money laundry scheme or something along those lines." Instead of explaning it herself, Sinon just pointed to an option in the terminals, called 'Credit to Yen', which Syber understood rather quickly, but he didn't quite realize what it meant.

"You can literally make money playing this game." Sinon explained. "Real life Yen, usually enough to cover the connection fee every month, but for some people...it might just be enough to make a living out of GGO." For a while, that looked like too much of a shocking realization for Syber, but his reaction after a long silence was just "Well... It's sort of nice to know people still take VR too seriously..." And the funny thing is, Sinon looked like she was hoping something exagerrated would happen, so when he failed to meet her expectations she almost fell flat on her face when it happened. "...anyway, I'm done signing up too. Can we go now?" Syber's words confused Sinon, who only then realized he was signing up for BoB as she spoke. "Hey, are you sure you want to do this?" Syber asked if there was anything to lose from trying his hand at BoB. "Well, no, but...you DO realize there's no way you'll even make it past the prelims, right?" His response? "Yeah, but why chicken out? You said it yourself, I got nothing to lose." Sinon wasn't impressed per se, but seeing him act like that proved something to her: At the very least he's braver than the cannon fodder. "I suppose you're right. If anything, you might learn something...alright, we're done here. Next stop: Capital Market."

Being the game's largest Safe Zone, it would stand to reason that it also has the biggest number of shops. Them forming a shopping mall of sorts, known as the **Capital Market** , was probably because this world was made by game-devs who were running low on ideas. Either way, it was full of shops, minigames and vending machines that sell ammo boxes and med-kits, among other types of supplies people have to restock all the time. "Ask why this place looks like a freaking mall and I'll punch your face...in the face." Sinon's threat was more than enough to reduce the ever curious Syber into a frightened infant...actually, she might've overdone it. Poor thing... A few turns past the minigame square, the two arrived at a small shop called **Bootcamp Supplies.** "Alright, how much of the initial 1000 Credits you still have?" Syber, still a little shaken from her previous threat, only nodded quietly as he showed her his character screen. "All of it, huh?" She booted up the shop's catalog and skipped straight to the gun section. "Nope, nope, too expensive, nope...wait...these prices are higher than I remember." She looked at the robot clerk and asked to see the update history, which confirmed her suspicion that the prices were indeed changed. "Was this...? Oh, right, when the servers got region locked." After a moment of thought, she decided to head back to the square and grab something to eat.

* * *

A short while later...

"They have McRonalds here...?" Burgers, fries...it both looked and tasted just like IRL. "They also have Burger Kaiser, but they don't give Dexterity buffs and I'd rather have those. I AM a sniper after all." After a not so healthy meal that would have zero impact on their weight because VR, Syber asked about the minigames before them. "Do you get anything for winning or they're just for fun?" Sinon almost laughed at that, but doing so in a crowded square would ruin her "Ice Queen" reputation. "The most competitive VR game out in the market doing something just for fun? Seriously?" Still, whether they're not worth the trouble or too much trouble to be worth it, most of them were, acording to her, a waste of time and Credits. "...especially Untouchable." She pointed at this cowboy-themed minigame where a saloon at the end of a long fence hallway is guarded by a gunslinger robot.

"What's so wrong about it? It looks fun-" Syber was saying, but as soon as someone approached the front gate, the gunslinger let out a big "Hey, chicken! C'mon!" that made Syber cringe and laugh at the same time. "Just...what...? What the heck was that supposed to be..." Sinon thought Syber had seen reason, but he did the exact opposite: "I wanna try that." Instead of getting worked up, she just let him do it once so he'd see for himself. "Your funeral." She said with a smirk... Looking at the hand-pad to start the game, Syber first noticed the reason she emphasized on him trying it only once: each try was 500 Credits, so she was probably trying to keep him from going a second time. "Fair enough, I guess..."

He pressed the hand-shaped button and that opened the little fence door. Once inside, he felt a subtle shift in his visual interface, an all too familiar sensation that often signified the start of a battle. "C'mon, chicken!" The drone said, before loading his gun and taking a shot at Syber. "Laser aim...? But his gun-" His thinking was cut short by a barrage of 3 bullets that nearly got him, the panic almost made him forget what he was supposed to do: "run for it!" Sinon yelled, which he did hesitantly, but without a second thought. He eventually got the hang of the 3-shot pattern the gunslinger used during the first 25 meters, but the moment he stepped past that point the robot yelled "I'll kill you!" and changed to a 6-shot pattern. Syber tripped after the 3rd barrage, and was turned into swiss cheese by the 4th unload.

"Nice hustle," Sarcastic Sinon felt very sarcastic, "Maybe next time you'll get him to show you his moves?" Maybe it was because she saw his defeat coming from a mile away, but his groan sounded like it was exactly what she wanted to hear. "You're kind of mean, you know that?" But Sinon only reminded him that he chose this. "True. So, what now?" Sinon pointed to a shop, though it was not the one they visited before. "It would take too long for you to get a real gun using stuff meant for tutorial quests, so I'll loan you enough credits to cover the basics and you're going straight to the entry-level shop instead."

This second shop, named **Boutique Militia** looked less like an army storage and more like a proper shop: holographic dolls wearing armory and other gears, a small shooting range on the back and actual costumers, mostly newcomers and veterans mentoring them though. Speaking of which...

Sinon booted up the shop's menu and cued Syber to do the same. "First you gotta choose your guns and stat-build. Got anything in mind?" Syber gave it some thought, but he just didn't know enough to make a choice. "Suggestions? Just pick a gun you like, that outta show what build you're going for. Though, if I had to suggest...I'd say STR-oriented guns, so Shotguns or Assault Rifles. You've seen AKs before, right?" Syber nodded, but truth be told, the former grabbed his attention real hard. "Oh? Many would advise against those." But Syber looked at her and asked "but would you?" She simply shrugged and told him not to put words in her mouth. "Okay then, I'll get you started with an entry-level shotgun." The model picked was called **Ichata-78** , which caused Syber to raise one heck of an eyebrow, "Pretty sure that's not what this this is called..." He thought.

Further into the shop, Syber tried his new weapon out at the shooting range. "Hold on, shouldn't there be a short-range target?" Sinon nodded, but went on to explain that his gun was loaded with slug shells. Syber took a shot without aiming just to see what she was talking about, but the recoil surprised him so he didn't even hit the paper. "The first time is always like that, try again." His second shot hit the paper, and upon closer inspection, it made a hole 2 to 3 times larger than 9mm holes. "Fancy her now, huh?" Syber nodded. His mind was made up by that alone, but Synon told him to finish that clip, "don't let it go to waste" she said. He took the next 4 shots a little more seriously, but he only hit the center mark once. "You'll get the hang of it once you get to practice against real foes. Let's go, I still need to pick the rest of your loadout."

* * *

A few minutes later...

" **Iron Plate** , check; **Soft Leather Belt** , check; **Small Pouches** , check and check. Adding the Ichata to that, the total so far was...about 27.000 Credits." Sinon found that strange, "we'll get the ammo and grenades from a vending machine outside, so... what could be missing?" Syber raised his hand and asked about sub-weapons. "I mean, don't get me wrong, this shotgun looks like a good gun to start with, but...shouldn't I get something else to go with it?" Instead of explaning, she took a few steps back and told him to walk towards her. "Okay...but I don't see how- whoa...!" He failed to notice the weight of his new gear until he moved around. "If I were to hazard a guess," Sinon nonchalantly said, "I'd say that gauge on your status screen is about 80% full." Just as she said, it was at 82% and it had changed from green to red. "Feel free to include a sub-weapon in your loadout...once you have the STR and Credits to efford it."

19Sinon went back to thinking, until eventually she saw some other costumer trying out a laser pistol, then it hit her. "Barrier." She said, before taking what looked like a trinket from the shop's catalog. "I doupt you'll need this this soon, but it doesn't weight much so it won't be much of a problem." She strapped it to his belt, which raised the total tally to 47.000 Credits. Next, she took a fancy sci-fi gun and told Syber to shoot her. "This is a safe zone, right?" Sinon nodded and she said he wouldn't hit her even if it weren't, which he took as a taunt and fired a barrage at her but the lasers were blocked by a blue energy field. "These are the reason why I told you not to use lasers: despite their high specs, barriers will just eat those up, but live ammo goes through just fine."

Upon checking out, Syber, who initialy had 50.500 Credits, was now down to 3.500 Credits and some pocket change.

* * *

"Alright, so... How does one equip the new stuff?" Syber asked Sinon who then sighs before responding "You really haven't played a lot of RPGs, have you?" Syber shakes his head and Sinon then answers "Well first off, you need to change into the battle outfit you got with that armor... Which means, you have to change out of your regular clothes." Syber raises an eyebrow and asks "Doesn't that seem unnecessary? ...Considering that there's a device connected to your mind? I mean, maybe it should just read your thoughts and do all the equipping for you, rather than making an arbitrary hand gesture system. It's just that it seems incredibly impractical for you to just sit there, strip down to your underwear and equip all your new gear... Which can get you killed in battle." Sinon then raised an eyebrow at Syber's analysis, before he walked towards a private room to change into his gear. Sinon followed suit to another private room to change into her own gear. She wore a green jacket with black and green pants. Underneath the jacket was a white undershirt that covered her entire torso. She also wore black and white combat shoes along with a white scarf. To top it all off, she had also equipped herself with black, fingerless gloves.

Syber meanwhile, came out wearing a blue long sleeved undershirt with his regular iron plate on his torso. He also wore camo pants, black combat boots and gloves on both hands. "Okay, so now you're ready for your first dungeon..." Sinon said before cueing Syber to follow her. "Wait! First dungeon? I'm only at Level One... You can't just beef me up in a single dungeon!" Sinon then looks back at him and responded "Oh just relax, ya big baby... This is gonna help you for sure... If you survive that is..." Syber felt afraid, after that last comment... But decided to follow her against his better judgement. They had walked outside the city to see that a set of stairs, that would appear to be leading to a subway is where they're headed. Once they headed down the stairs, Syber looked around and saw that the dungeon appeared to be an old research labratory. "So... What'cha think?" Sinon asked Syber who answered "It's a bit dusty for my taste... But, it looks decent." Sinon then shakes her head and gestures him to check his stats.

After doing so... He noticed that his levels had gone up just a little bit. "Wait, how am I Level fifteen already?!" Syber shouted to Sinon, who answered "That's because of the dungeon mechanics in this game. Dungeons will raise your level to its minimal level until you reach said level, or leave the dungeon. You still gain experience acording your real level, which means the monsters in this zone still yield 14 levels worth of extra experience to you. Also, I'm not gonna be using my rifle because I want you to get last hit bonuses." Syber then nods in understanding, and proceeds to follow her into the dungeon. As they go around, Syber notices some of the semi-legible research notes lying around the lab. "Don't bother trying to read those... They're all written in English." Sinon says to Syber, who tries to read them anyway. "So... The NPCs who were in this area before players, ended up researching... Something about... Dimensions, what?" Syber said to himself, and Sinon caught on to this and asked "Wait, you can read this?" Syber nodded and answered "My English isn't very good, but I can read some of it. Though, this is only conjecture based on these papers."

Suddenly, they heard some snorting noises nearby. "Um... What was that?" Syber asked Sinon who answered "We've got some company... Put those notes away and whip out that gun of yours." Syber then pulled up the menu and quickly stored the notes before equipping his shotgun. "What about you, boss?" Syber asked Sinon, who answered by pulling out an SMG and pointed it in front of her. Suddenly, what appeared to be a small group of large bipedal boars charged at the two, but Sinon rolled under the Boar and unloaded a couple rounds into it's torso, while Syber shot the boar point blank in the chest. "Woah... This thing has actual recoil... Who knew." He saw the boar slowly get up, and shot a couple more rounds into it, before it was dead. "Well, that was an experience." Syber said to himself, to which Sinon responded "Those are some of the small fries of this dungeon. It'll probably get harder as we go on... But, I'm gonna need you to be on point. I'll provide some support with my SMG..." "Okay... I'll do just that, boss." Syber said, saluting her out of respect. Sinon then made a mental note to ask Syber, why would he refer to her as boss...

Once they reached the third floor of the dungeon, Sinon noticed that there didn't seem to be another floor on the displayed map. "That's weird? ...There's supposed to be five floors in this dungeon. How come I'm only seeing three?" Sinon asked herself before Syber continued to read the research notes to see if there's anything they missed. Suddenly, Syber noticed that there was a strange floating blob behind a curtain that he pulled down. "Hey Boss! You should take a look at this!" Syber shouted to Sinon to get her attention, and the two noticed the blob. "What do you think? Should we touch it?" Syber asked Sinon who looked with skepticism and responded "Wait, I have a better idea: since we got someone who can read these notes, I say we leave for today and go over these carefully." Syber reluctantly followed Sinon down the dungeon though shortcuts Sinon improvised out of crumbling floor tiles. "You can wait here, Mr. Blob-thingy... Until they make a good X-Men movie with you in it." Syber chuckled at his own joke...

* * *

Back outside...

Sinon and Syber exited the Echo Ruins, and Syber was receiving a prompt on his display. "Boss! What's the prompt for?" Syber asked Sinon, who answered "Oh! That's the level up prompt. It appears when you've gained a level up, and it's asking you to dump your stats into something. Oh, and before you think abou it... I recommend putting a large part of your experience on Strength and Vitality. Speed is a non-issue as far as I'm concerned." Syber nodded and looked at the stats. "Hm... I wonder if Speed is still as broken as it was back then..." Syber thought to himself again, as Sinon was looking for a place to sell her gains. He then placed his points, but did it quickly so that Sinon wouldn't notice what he had in mind. "So... What level are you at?" Sinon asked Syber who answered "Um... Level 15 right now." Sinon then smiled before saying "Well kid... You've got a long way to go before you're at my level." They once again headed to the gun shop, where Syber decided to go and see the Untouchable game.

"Hey, there's no need to check this game out again... I mean, you already lost to it before." Sinon said to Syber, who responded "I know that... But, the developers for a game, wouldn't just place this thing here... If there wasn't a method to beat it. So, right now... I'm thinking up a way on how to beat this sucker." Sinon sighed and said "Fine, whatever... Waste your money on this stupid game. Makes it a whole lot easier to get killed." She then logged out of the game, and Syber watched as another player stepped into the game. He observed some of the patterns of the robot, and took mental notes. After a while, he then said "Got everything I needed... Now to jot these down and prepare for tomorrow." Before logging out of GGO, and back into the real world. Syber looked around, and saw that he was still in his apartment. He then removed the Amusphere, and went to jot down the notes...

* * *

The next day...

After logging back into GGO, Sinon walked into the gun shop that she knew Syber was going to be in, and muttered "Eh, what the hell... Watching the kid crash and burn will give me some amusement." Syber was then standing at the front of the Untouchable gate, in front of a large group of people. He waved to Sinon, who crossed her arms and decided to watch. He pressed the button on the screen and paid five hundred credits. "Ten thousand for if the kid makes it past the twenty meter mark?" One of the onlookers asked the other, who then added "Probably the cutest target I ever saw..." Syber felt annoyed at said comment, but ignored it as best as humanly possible. After the countdown clock hit zero... Syber did something no one expected him to do... Walk. "Tch, lame..." One of the penut gallery said to himself. "I'll kill you!" The Untouchable said, before Syber saw the prediction lines and dodged expertly... Before using a sudden burst of speed to run at the machine. The machine was watching his movements, but then he came to a walk again. "You loser!" The Untouchable said before firing another string of bullets that were dodged, and like before Syber ran faster than he initially did and continued, until he saw him reload again.

"Die! Ya Varmit!" The Untouchable said, and Syber once again dodged and ran. "I'll blast you to hell!" The Untouchable said as he reloaded and fired another string of bullets. One of the spectators then asked "What the hell's her build?!" Another spectator added "Yeah! I mean, there's no way in hell that's a strength build!" Sinon then thought to herself "That is a good question indeed..." Syber didn't slow down for this string of bullets... But instead he slided and made a high jump over the Untouchable... And tapped him on the shoulder. "Hey... You lost, buddy." He said, before standing back. "Noooooooo!" The Untouchable said, before all the credits that were saved up into the game... Came bursting out. Syber then pressed a prompt on his screen and took all the credits. "Hey chicken! C'mon!" The Untouchable said as Syber was walking away. Syber looked at the audience, who were reduced to mostly slackjawed onlookers. Sinon, then approached Syber and asked "Okay! Just what the hell was that?!" Syber looked away from her out of nervousness and responded "Well, I, um..." Sinon interrupted saying "That! That back there! That was amazing!" Syber responded "It wasn't really much. I mean, anyone could've figured out that patience was the key to beating that guy. Though, it was a matter of trial and error. I've been practicing him almost all day..."

Sinon nodded and said "I'll say... Wait a second." Suddenly what was once a slightly proud-looking face turned into something menacing, the type would think twice before wishing on your enemies. "Um... S-Sinon...?" She then complimented his speed, saying it was quite the achievement for someone whose Agility is still at 1. "Because I know you put all 14 points in Strength or Constitution, not Agility... Right?" That got Syber and most bystanders shaking in their boots. "RIGHT...?"

* * *

Character Stats:

\- SINON (Lv 72)  
STR 22  
CON 1  
AGI 1  
DEX 40  
SEN 10  
LCK 3  
 **Nothing Important Acquired (except an urge to kill)**

\- SYBER (Lv 15)  
STR 5  
CON 5  
AGI 5  
DEX 1  
SEN 1  
LCK 1 **  
[Ichata], [Iron Place], [Belts], [Small Pouches], [Small Jewel] Purchased**  
 **"A Foot up your Butt" Achievement**


	3. Hecate, and Behemoth

The following is a non-profit Fanfiction.  
Sword Art Online is owned by A-1 Pictures, Aniplex and Reki Kawahara.  
Please support the official release...

 **Gale Warriors: Gun Gale Online Arc Chapter 3: Hecate, and Behemoth...**

In a large wasteland, with numerous abandoned buildings... It seemed that there wasn't much going on. The wind was blowing, that one lizard climbing the rock looks left and right and thinks "WTF is going on?" And then of course, we have Mini Gun fire and what appears to be Sinon falling to her doom from atop one of said buildings... Wait, what? As everything is going on... Syber then addresses the reader, saying "You might be thinking: a death scene only three chapters in? I think we'll need a recap, because I don't have the slightest clue either... And I think I just punched a cow?"

* * *

 **One Week Earlier...**

After the Untouchable episode, the two went back to that supply shop. Unlike last time, Sinon was the one benching. Through Syber, who was combing through the gun department. "I thought VR was supposed to make it so that you don't feel pain IRL?" Sinon asked, confused and somewhat concerned for Syber, who answered "It slips sometimes..." Sinon raised an eyebrow at that statement, before they headed for weapons section. "Perfect..." Sinon murmured. "At this rate we'll be here all day, and I can already see something idiotic like the fastest SMG ever or that photon sword- Wait, where is he going…?" Syber then went into the shop's depths, into a mysterious void colloquially known as "Misc. Guns" catalog. Having seen the uncanny results of Syber's impulsive choices, Sinon knew that wasn't a good sign. She got up and went after Syber, but by then it was already too late…

In his hands, Syber held what looked like a large pistol, possibly a magnum, but it lacked the usual drum chambers those tend to come use. Furthermore, the weapon had a grip guard and a blade tip sticking out from the barrel's back. It's default color scheme was a white with red trims, but Syber eventually changed it to his usual marine blue with azure trim, making it look like a neon line ran across the barrel's sides. "No...He didn't...SYBER!" The issuing stomping sound scared the colors out of Syber, who meekly asked what was it.

Sinon took that thing out of his hands and opened a web browser to one of GGO's many wikia websites. "Choosing a gunblade is fine, but you just HAD to pick a schmuck bait, DIDN'T YOU?!" Instead of waiting for Syber's inevitable request for clarification, Exposition Girl came to the preemptive rescue, pointing out that high specs for low prices happen for a reason: when a gun has an annoying gimmick to it. "When a dev f***s something up but doesn't want to remove it, they instead raise its specs to try and mask it. But they always forget to alter its market value, so they remain cheap… In short, don't trust oddly good prices. EVER."

In his usual disbelief, Syber glanced at her browser. "Lemme see this: REP-4 Gunblade , blablabla, powerful entry-level, blablabla, it cuts people when reloading...?" Sinon unloaded the gun to prove her point. "When the blade flips out, it's unlikely you'll cut yourself. But as the blade flips back towards your thumb and wrist..." Safe-zone invincibility kept her from taking damage, but it was clear she would've lost a finger and possibly cut her own wrist otherwise. "Hence its infamous nickname: Finger Ripper."

Astute readers will guess what happens next: Syber tried it himself, but when it was time to reload, he removed his thumb before swinging the barrel back up, sparing his thumb and looking cool while doing what looked like a flip trick. "Here's the thing:" he boldly stated, "People just aren't creative when they don't want to be. Or, I guess you could say they're more creative when they want? Yeah, I think that works better..."

Much to Syber's surprise, Sinon didn't sigh or yell at him. Rather, she pretended that didn't happen and moved along to the non-weapon catalogs. "Here's your new holster, stronger variants of your current armor, that photon gauntlet you're itching to buy because you just love doing stupid things with your luck-earned money-" She stops her hasty speech to take in a long breath of air, "...and a new barrier jewel." Sinon then shoved Syber into a dressing room and closed the door behind them. "Now get dressed, we're finishing that dungeon from last night. Any more stupid ideas- I mean, suggestions?" But she turned and left before Syber could utter two syllables, again shutting the door on his face.

After he headed in, he muttered "Stupid VRMMO, with it's stupid strip down to your underwear rule, and it's stupid F**king- Wait... Is the profanity filter on?" Before he changed into his new equipment. "Okay, so you're all ready?" Sinon asked Syber who responded "You can say shit, but you can't say F**k?" Sinon was confused and asked "Hell if I know... American devs never made much sense to begin with…" Syber sighed in defeat."Let's just get this over with..." Before they headed over to the Echo Ruins.

* * *

 **Underground Path...**

On their way to dungeon, Sinon noticed some cracked tiles on her usual path that shouldn't be breaking. "What the…?" Sinon slowed down to check the floor, but it was Syber who figured this one out. "Sinon...you forgot my loadout has extra weight, didn't you?"

The two fell deeper, into the unexplored layers of the city's underground. Once the two had landed, they looked at their health bars and realized one thing: "No fall damage? I guess not every change was bad…" Syber said to no one in particular while Sinon more or less apologized, "This is my fault... I'm the one who said you should get a heavy loadout."

"Okay then, how about we investigate this dungeon..." Sinon suggested to Syber who responded "Right, I'll take the doorway and try to map out the area..." Sinon sighed, "Amateur." She muttered before looking at a ventilation shaft and pried the grate off the vent. "If you try following me, I'll turn your guts into swiss cheese." She said before crawling in. As she was crawling through the vent, she muttered to herself "Good thing Syber's a good listener, otherwise he'd be too busy staring at my ass..."

After a while, Syber was busy navigating the dungeon and saw a large group of high level enemies. "I guess this is a pretty high level dungeon..." Suddenly, he saw that there were a large group of enemies in this dungeon. "Neat... Guess it's time to test the Gunblade out..." He held the handle like it was a pistol and set off to take down the monsters in his path...

Back with Sinon, she had finally reached the end of the ventilation shaft… Sinon looked at her surroundings and said "No ranged attacks, no minions… And the room is pitch black… Lucky me... " She then propped her rifle onto the ledge and started unloading bullets on the boss. The boss didn't detect her through the dark area of the room... Luckily, she not only had a scope, but enough sensibility to almost see in the dark. Though, as the boss kept on firing lasers from his eye, it could not find Sinon... In fact, all it did was make him an easier target to hit. She then aimed for the boss' eye and then the boss fell like a stack of dominoes. Afterwards, what appeared to be a victory banner with the word "Congraturations! A winrar is you!" suddenly came down from the ceiling. "Um... Yay..." Sinon said in a confused manner. "Aw man! I get to the boss room and it's already dead! Why didn't you wait for me, boss?!" Syber said in a disappointed tone of voice.

Sinon noticed him and thought to herself " _Oh hey, he's here- Wait, what?_ " She then shouted "Oi! Syber how did you even get down here?!" Syber then responded "Err... Push ups, Sit ups, and plenty of juice?" Sinon heard that, and tapped a prompt on her screen, which showed a new Sniper rifle being handed to her. "Hecate..." Sinon said to herself "Okay, well... Why don't we meet up outside the dungeon... If we can get out of here..." Syber said to the boss before walking away. After Sinon was gushing about her new gun, a thought occurred to her... "How did he make it down here all by himself... He seems like THE most co dependent person I've met... And yet, he's perfectly capable of handling himself just fine. I'm gonna ask him on the way to the Echo Ruins..." Once they exited the dungeon, Syber noticed his level jump from Level 15 to Level 36. "Huh... I jumped a whole twenty one levels..." Syber said, noticing the huge change.

"Well, you just entered a pretty high level dungeon, and the maximum level requirement is Level 33... So... You must've jumped a huge number of levels... Just make sure you don't dump too many points into Speed... It's a stat that's lost it's luster, and there's no reason for you to be dumping a large amount into it." Syber nods and decides to do his leveling... But not without Sinon supervising the whole thing. "There, I only dumped about three points into speed. The rest went into Strength, Vitality, Dexterity and Sensibility." Syber said, confirming Sinon's suspicions. Six were dumped into Strength, Four into Vitality, Three into Dexterity and Five into Sensibility. "Not much of a luck guy, huh?" Sinon asked Syber who responded "Real luck is made by a person's own actions, not some RNG arbitrary bullshit." Sinon correctly guessed that he learned that one the hard way. He nodded and creepily murmured "Fire Emblem..." They then headed back down the path to the Echo Ruins... To investigate the blob within the Research Facility...

* * *

 **In Echo ruins...**

Unlike last time, the trip to the third floor was easy and uneventful, first two floors were pretty much empty because someone else had gone through the dungeon. "Think that guy got past the roadblock?" Sinon shook her head, claiming the annoyed look on their face suggested otherwise. Since her 'angrish' not very good, Sinon had nothing to do but wait for Syber to translate those papers. "Here's what I got so far: find some mcguffin that does something." He added that whatever that something was, they would likely find it in another dungeon. "This better not turn into a princess hunt..." Sinon complained, but Syber was too surprised she knew about that to care.

"Still, another dungeon is just too vague. We'd take months going through dungeons randomly." At her patience's end, Sinon got up and walked towards the lab's door. "You stay here and copy these papers. No wait, that'd take too long, take screenshots instead." When Syber asked where she was going, she said was that she wanted some bacon. Also something about testing her new gun, either way, bacon. After she left, Syber mumbled to himself, "Oh sure, go do something fun while I sit here and work my ass off like it's english class all over..."

* * *

 **Echo Ruins (3F Boss Room), about 30 Minutes later...**

After calling it quits on the translation gig and plowing through the same mobs that gave him quite a deal of trouble their first time around, Syber arrived at the boss room only to see Sinon one-shot the boss with her new gun. "At last... The strongest, most powerful sniper in GGO is mine..." Her monologue was cut short by Syber tapping on her shoulder, which caused her to jump back and let out the most off-character yell Syber had ever seen. "WHAAaa?! Can't you see I'm- oh, it's you…" He nodded and showed her a bunch of screenshot files. "Also, I got to witness a live cyber attack on that GGO wikia. Shame he shut the server down after a while though…"

Sinon said that was common practice among pro-players. "People will do anything to protect their income. Not to mention GGO is the easiest launder since Scarface… I'm talking about the 2020 remake by the way. " Syber canceled a geek out and insisted told her to watch the original. "They don't even launder money in that one, it's just hacking and info traffic." He insisted, but Sinon said she wasn't interested. "Besides- what the…?"

A loud roar notified the two that the boss respawned. "Doesn't that thing usually take, like, 20 minutes to respawn?" Syber asked, but Sinon didn't seem to care about it. "Newer dungeons force mobs to respawn early when players enter a dungeon for the first time." For once, instead of letting Syber ask his questions, she hushed him, claiming that wasn't the time for small talk. "High-pitched, rapid fire... short bursts! Dammit, a scrub found this place." Syber failed to see how that was relevant, and Sinon refused to explain it as well, but she was adamant about not letting that player find the lab. Furthermore, she would've offed the boss a second time to keep them from finding it, had Syber not stopped her. "I'll handle this… I mean, may I, Boss?" She nodded and stood by the door. "Hurry, or I'll kill them myself."

After the first few shots, Syber noticed Sinon said 'them' instead of 'it' and that she wasn't taking aim at the boss. "Sinon, why are you aiming at the hallway…?" Sinon didn't answer, but she did clarify she was aiming at the staircase. "Fun fact about this rifle: it's anti-materiel, so it can punch through walls...and skulls." It was then that Syber understood: she was going to make it look like this player got killed by a dungeon trap to fool them into thinking the floor was too hard for them. "From the sound of it, they got halfway through the first floor. Tic tac tic tac, Syber..."

Due to its buffed specs, Syber's gunblade had the stability of a small caliber handgun despite packing the punch of a mid-caliber revolver. Stacking that on top of this boss' lack of speed, ranged attacks and a helmet to protect its oversized weak spot made the boss itself a joke. There was, however, a matter of pride to be considered: She may treat mobs and most players like prey, but I doubt taking out a newbie with such a cheap trick will sit right with her... I can finish this thing in time if I stick to gun mode, but the whole point in fighting it was to test blade mode… should I risk it, or stick to the safe approach…?

Sinon's hearing was better than Syber's due to her higher SEN (Sensibility) stat, hence she could hear this player while Syber could not. That remained true until Sinon's target made it to the second floor, after which Syber begun hearing this constant buzzer in the distance. While things with the boss were going just fine, the urge to go reckless and test that blade still plagued his mind. It was so bad that, when he reached for his ammo pouch and it was empty, he almost smiled. "Oh well, guess I've got no choice but to melee the shit outta this guy!"

Goes without saying the idea backfired: Syber couldn't figure out what he was doing wrong, but the blade just wasn't doing much damage. Freed from the stagger loop keeping it from doing anything, the boss grabbed Syber and threw him at a wall. It wasn't anything he couldn't live through, but he nearly went through the wall. "Hey Stupid." Sinon looked to the hole next to her with cold scoffing eyes only to say "shotgun and plasma grenades." She then turned her scope's x-ray lens on. "By the way, he'll reach the stairs any second now..."

Syber felt like life was punishing himself for being stupid and reckless, a first since that's usually Sinon's shtick. Though, when put together, those heartless ladies gave Syber an idea, one crazy and creative enough to work. "Don't touch my bacon, I'll be right back!" Syber yelled, dashing past Sinon towards the wall she was aiming for. When asked what he was doing, Syber told Sinon that "If I can't have my kill the way I planned it, neither can you!" Syber unloaded his shotgun on the wall to weaken it. As he closed in on the wall, he punched through the wall with a grenade in hand, letting go of the pin and crushing it with his grip just as the guy on the other side passed by.

The ensuing explosion finished wrecking the wall, along with the scrub on the other side and Syber, who was already low on health after that pigman's attack. In her tranquil fury, Sinon put that rifle over shoulder and walked towards Syber's remains, putting a bullet on "Bacon-kun" when it followed after her. "Care to explain yourself?" Though dead in-game, Syber could still hear and respond via party chat from the respawn limbo. "That was me being petty and competitive. You know, same as you." That angered her at first, but he went on. "You work your game and intel like crazy, just like a pro-player, but you always talk about them in the third person 'because you're not one of them. In the end, you're being competitive just because. Same as me, and everyone else who plays this game to have fun...no?" Syber prepared to respawn after saying that, so Sinon didn't get to reply just yet...

* * *

 **Outside…**

Syber respawned next to the Lab's front door. A second later, that scrub followed suit. "What the hell! How did I get here? Why do I feel like I should be angry at you? I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS!" He kept yapping at Syber because he was the only person there, clearly he had no idea it that it was Syber who offed him. Syber tried to ignore him, but when he tried to walk away the poor lad pulled Syber's shoulder and, upon seeing him up close, the words "wait...you're a guy?" Escaped from his mouth…

By the time Sinon made it out, all that remained was a dead scrub by Syber's feet. "What have we learned?" Syber asked, before pulling the trigger on his shotgun and ending that unfortunate lad, yet again. "Hey there, Sinon. Can you believe this guy? Taking it out on me because he went and got himself killed by a trap." But, unsurprisingly, Sinon replied with a fist to his jawline. "Why would you do that?!" "Know your freaking place…" But all that anger was unbecoming of an Ice Queen like her, so she took a deep breath and said he was going to pay for his lack of respect...literally. "You've yet to prove your mettle, that much is clear, but since you're so eager to get yourself killed, you're… Hm… Actually, that should work… You're taking a gig with me, a PvP gig." Sinon showed Syber a chat log of hers.

DYNE: C'mon Sinon, I'm desperate. These noobs won't last 2 minutes out there without a sniper covering them.  
SINON: Not my problem.  
DYNE: Please, just this once… for old time's sake?  
SINON: ...hold on. Give me job description, maybe I can get you someone.  
DYNE: Awesome. It's your run of the mill Manhunt, but the crew we're aiming for won't go down easy. Hard to believe there are decent players who even bother with mobs…  
SINON: ...some of my best gear were drops...heck, my current loadout is almost entirely made up of drops.  
DYNE: ...but you never tell anyone where to find the bosses who drop'em. Like every freaking pro-player out there… e_e SINON: Anyway, I'll relay this to a guy I know. He's quirky and doesn't get out much, but I'm sure his uncanny luck will fit your motley crew like a glove.  
DYNE: Sweet...hey! What's that supposed to mean?  
SINON: Just what it says on the tin. -_- When are you striking?  
DYNE: Next Friday, sometime around 6pm.  
SINON: Make it 19:00, kid's a high-schooler...I think.  
DYNE: You think...?  
SINON: What do I look like? A people person?  
DYNE: True. Surprised you even have someone to recommend…

Syber guessed that this "manhunt" thing was about hunting target of interest, but he guessed wrong as it turns out. "That's bounty hunting. Manhunting is a slang for saps on the hunt for mobs." Naturally, Syber questioned if hunting those guys when they're armed and ready for a fight was such a good idea, and as per usual, Sinon had just the tidbit of information to calm his tits. "Mob Hunters need to use Laser weapons to make a profit. You remember what I taught you about Lasers, yeah?"

Syber thought back to one of their shopping sprees, in particular the one where he got his first Photon Crystal. _Back on GGO's beta days, Laser weapons owned live ammo guns so hard, they say one of the admins got so butthurt he invented the Crystals and put them in shops all over the server for cheap just to make live ammo superior. Americans and their guns, I guess...?_ "Now that I think about it, you DID said Laser is only good for hunting mobs..."

Sinon nodded and told him to open up his schedule on friday. "If you don't show up, you'll learn just how petty I can get when I'm pissed off." She then grabbed him by the neck collar and gave him a soul-piercing glare. "Talk to me like that again and no safe zone on this server will make your punishment painless. Are we clear?" The terrorized lad was so frozen in fear he nearly forgot to nod. Once he did, she dropped him and left him there. Minutes later, he logged out himself.

* * *

 **Sakon's Place, Early Evening…**

The baby face lad woke up with a cold sweat, shaky limbs and a racing heart. "I didn't think… Things would get so intense today." He put the VR gear away and crouched in front of the fridge. "Ugh… Forgot to stock up. Again… I'm really hopeless outside the game, aren't I?" Close, but not quite, for he had a sudden change in attitude as he said "Welp, nothing to do but to go out for dinner. I could use a nice change of pace-" The moment he face the window he saw...something.

Whatever he saw out there, it got under his skin in a flash. Startled, he immediately pulled the curtains and turned around, expelling the very thought from his mind and stepping into the shower out of pure reflex. Truth be told, he WAS this close to catching a cold, but he wouldn't realize that until after he left his place. " _I REALLY need to take it easy with the A/C… Now, where should I eat...?_ "

* * *

 **Next Friday (After Class), Generic Wasteland #43**

As the name implied, the meeting place was rocky wasteland, one of countless others in GGO's world map. What stood out in this one were the hills, which looked very western-like, and a busted skyscraper, the sort of architecture that could spawn a decent parkour challenge if it weren't so unrewarding. The setting sun painted everything orange, but the ruined building remained dark on the inside. Its glassware was completely busted up and the remains of its top floors were scattered on the ground next to it, chucks of concrete thick enough to be used as covers… Or to live under, if you're a mob.

Syber found Sinon and a bunch of dudes hiding atop the hills, observing the mutated beasts hanging around the building. "You're here, good." Sinon gestuing Syber to come closer, but first… Time to deal with the usual issue that comes with meeting new people: "Alright! She ain't as hot as Sinon but damn is she cute-" Dyne's man was addressed with Syber's usual punch to the nose. "So which one of you is Dyne?" Syber forced his voice as deep as it would go to drive his point home.

A cowboy-looking guy looked at Sinon, who said that happened a lot apparently. "Sounds troublesome, but she- I mean, he's just an extra. Plenty of heat from the two of us alone. I'm Dyne, nice to meet ya." Syber shook Dyne's hand, who noticed Syber's hand was manly, unlike his cute face. "So, you're running a sniper load-out too?" Syber shook his head and was about to show the gunblade on his belt, but Sinon signaled him against that so he showed the shotgun on his back instead. "Oh, so Sinon's training you to be her guard dog, ain't she?" Syber found that phrasing of his rather curious, but he payed no mind as they had a job to do.

Everyone gathered around as Dyne went over the plan: "See that group coming our way in the distance?" Everyone looked at the horizon, where they saw another party approaching the building. "They've been following this same route for a while now, that being their last stop." Dyne pointed at the broken skyscraper, then he pulled out a pair of binoculars. "As per usual, they're all packing blasters. Mob hunters tend to use guns tuned to save battery, so I doubt we'll even take damage before they run out of juice." His men were about to move in, but Dyne stopped them to point that they were waiting for the hunters to clear out the building. "More loot for us, less battery for them. Get it?" Everyone agreed with Dyne, and so they waited...

* * *

 **Minutes Later…**

Once things were dying down, Dyne went over their attack plan one more time. "First, Sinon snipes out their leader, or whoever's packing the biggest gun. Then, we'll move in to wreck them up. I doubt it'll go south, but in case it does, remember to use the debris as cover. Sinon will do what she usually does and find a new vantage point after her initial shot, right?" Sinon nodded to that. "Then we're good to go. Any questions?"

Syber, who had borrowed Dyne's binoculars without asking, noticed a cloaked brute at the rear of their formation. "Wouldn't it be safer to take out the guy in the back? Y'know, the one in the cloak? Who knows what he's packing..." But Dyne dismissed his idea. "Probably just a mule with ammo and meds." He said, which prompted Syber to bet 5.000 credits. Dyne smirked and shook Syber's hand, then the boys moved down the hill slow and steady while Sinon climbed higher, to a spot she had her eyes on for a while now.

"Ready?" Sinon asked via party, she could some of them waiting, but Syber wasn't one of them. "Alright… Waiting on you to shoot the cloaked guy." Syber whispered, but Dyne saw what he was doing and angrily whispered back. "No! She's shooting the guy with the big. F**king. Gun!" Sinon sighed. "Maybe Syber's right… But Dyne's the one who gathered the intel." And just like that, she opened a pointlessly large hole on the enemy with her Hecate. A takedown that also served as signal for the guys to strike. "Have fun…"

* * *

 **Outside the Ruined Skyscraper…**

Dyne's group moved in first, two guys with Assault Rifles rushed ahead while a tall guy packing a LMG right behind them. They moved fast and somewhat carelessly, but they done so knowing what would happen. "They're all equipped with barriers!" One of the hunters shouted to their peers in the rear, before he got riddled with bullets and fell over.

" _Did those guns REALLY make the "Pew pew pew" sound?_ " Syber was baffled, but at the same he was squealing internally. He moved with Dyne and two others, all except for Syber armed with Assault Rifles. Syber was barely managing to keep up with Dyne's superior marksmanship, which was a stark contrast to his personality. "Didn't Sinon tell you? I've been playing GGO since the beta, just like she." Dyne chuckled at Syber's face, who was under the impression Dyne was one of those rowdy NPCs who have good leads but never do anything themselves.

* * *

 **Meanwhile - Atop the Rocky Hill...**

Sinon had found another vantage point. "Dyne, you copy? I'm taking out that cloaked guy now." Since nobody complained, she shrugged and took aim. "Headshot- what?" It would've been a fine killshot, but somehow the cloaked guy dodge. Just by moving his head out of the way. Like a boss. "Damn!" Sinon punched the floor before preparing a second shot, this time aiming at the guy's torso, but she stopped when that guy ripped out his cloak.

* * *

 **Back with the Guys...**

Seeing an opportunity to one-up Sinon, the two Rifle users in the front ran past the pew shooters to take out the so-called cargo mule, and then it happen. What the brute was hiding was neither batteries nor meds, but rather, a square chunk of metal on his back… Along with a rotatory Minigun. "OH SHIII-" Yelled the front runners before they were riddled with bullets themselves. That bullet shower was so devastating, the tall guy was almost killed even though he didn't run ahead, his gun was too heavy to run.

"Looks like SOMEONE owes me 5,000 credits!" Syber yelled at a slack-jawed Dyne, but Sinon berated him over his inappropriate timing. "What are we gonna do? I don't think we can even approach this guy. Can you get him from up there?" Oddly enough, even though Syber's logic was sound, Sinon sounded a bit pissed off. Syber inquired about it, but Sinon said it wasn't him. "We're not dealing with a scrub or some lazy gun for hire. This guy…"

 _...he became infamous for mowing down hordes of mobs and players alike using only Miniguns, easily one of the most impractical gun classes GGO has to offer. "Behemoth" as he is commonly referred to, though I doubt that's his actual name..._

Those hearing the party chat, both alive and dead, were shocked by Sinon's words. "You gotta be kidding me!" Yelled one of Dyne's man. "I've tried using one before, but those damn things require crazy STR and CON to even equip…" Complained the tall guy, who was stuck with no barrier and almost dead amidst enemy lines. Even Dyne thinking of giving up before Sinon, who came running down, smacked Dyne in the head. "What are you, chickens?! This is a GAME for crying out loud! Show some backbone!" But Dyne wasn't exactly inspired by her words.

Sinon grabbed Dyne's shirt collar was about to yell at him again, but Syber stopped her instead. "I could tell you the same thing Sinon, this is just a game. We should be having fun, but this is quickly turning into a chore…" Sinon dropped Dyne and turned around. "Really? That guy's got the guts to smile while killing all our guys, and you're suggesting we do nothing?" Syber nodded. "He probably agreed to escort those guys just for fun, and look, he's having a gay old time with that minigun. Heck, don't we always do things the hard way just so you can have fun using your overpowered rifles?" But nope, that just made Sinon's anger grow threefold.

"You think this is a joke?! Child's play?! ...well, maybe to you." The fire in Sinon's eyes chilled down, but not in the calm sense, it was more of a bitter cold kind of icy stare. "You haven't struggled one bit since I met you. What the hell did you even need a teacher for...?" Syber thought that came out of the blue, but then she managed to get under his skin on a personal level. "I bet you never lost anything or someone in your life! Just because this isn't real doesn't mean it's not happening!" Syber grew silent and unexpressive, then he let out a heavy sigh. Dyne put a hand in Syber's should, assuming he was going to either cry or rage back, but he did neither. "You know what? ...fine. I got some stuff to vent out. Be right back..."

* * *

 **Meanwhile, Enemy Side...**

From the mob hunters' point of view, Syber suddenly stepped out in the open and walked towards them, dropping his shotgun on the way. "Hey! Douchebags! Got a minute?" Reasonably confused, the enemy stopped firing. Is he surrendering? The hunters wondered, but then Syber made his point. "I got 2 magazines worth of bad memories to vent out, so either leave or you're gonna have to share it among yourselves!"

Behemoth was too far in the back to hear or see Syber properly, so he asked his comrades. "Um… I think there's a strange but arousing attack coming our way." Unlike his previous sigh, Syber sounded more aggressive, short on patience and muttering things. "Fine, we're doing this the hard way them." He smiled, pulled his gunblade out, which prompted the guy in the front to laugh. "Wait, isn't that the gun that cuts your fingers when you reload? HAA ha, hahaha- * **Double Bang** *"

Before anyone could figure out what had gotten into Syber, the guy's laughter was abruptly cut short by two bullets to his head and heart. "Strange, he's not missing his fingers. Just his vitals. Is my gun malfunctioning?" Albeit he still couldn't hear it, Behemoth could tell crazy from a mile away. In response, Behemoth told the guys to take care of Syber, who in his eyes was clearly a distraction, but it was no use, the rest of them got fear-struck. "Move it! I gotta keep an eye out for their sniper."

While Syber enthusiastically strolled through enemy lines, he kept muttering with that unsettling smile on his face. "So I was right, handguns DO have crazy critical power. Makes sense I guess, they suck compared to other sidearms. Low floor, high ceiling. I should thank the scrubs, their inability to do anything right made this unbalanced gun a reality." Whenever one of them mustered the guts to try something, Syber would repeat his initial feat and re-instill the fear in their hearts. Except for the last guy…

"Time to reload." Syber dodged a laser, laughing over the pew pew sound and landing his blade on the dude's throat. "Hey, relax, you still got 9 more vitals to go." Syber got disappointed, however, when the guy died after a second stab. "Wow, I knew blades dish a lot, but that was still too much. Meh, moving on." After a badass reload, Syber got to Behemoth. "Yo, I got something important to say." Behemoth wasn't scared about Syber, it was Sinon who got him worried, he still believed Syber to be a diversion. "Oh I see, you didn't see Sinon's bullet line. She's such a headshot whore, isn't she? Still, to get the timing right so well, that was impressive. Hi, I'm Syber. By the way, I'm a boy silly." Keyword: wasn't.

"Aw, screw this shit. Taking you both down!" Though Syber was treating him as such, he knew Behemoth wouldn't go down easily. Fear tactics wouldn't work on a seasoned guy like Behemoth, so Syber rushed at him. It was a feint of course, he stepped to the side just as the brute begun firing. "You fire in bursts cuz you can't move an inch while firing that thing." Syber moved behind him and fired a round, but Behemoth tucked his head to make the bullet hit his ammo box. "So it's solid, huh?" Amusement almost got the better of Syber, who dodged a melee strike with a backstep, and wound up in the same situation as before.

* * *

 **Back with Dyne & Co…**

Dyne and his crew were slack-jawed at the fight happening before them. "This guy's crazy good! Where'd you find him, Sinon? ...Sinon?" It was only then that Dyne noticed an outline where Sinon once stood, but no Sinon. "Oh, okay. Back to watching the fight then…" He shrugged and went back to being slack-jawed.

* * *

 **Inside the Ruined Building...**

Sinon sought to go as high as she could, traveling across countless flights of crumbling stairs and missing gaps, aiming for a vantage point so close to Behemoth he wouldn't see it coming. " _Even if he sees me, you can't aim a minigun directly up. You wanted to be a martyr Syber. You're probably gonna be it right about now._ " Sinon thought upon hearing the roar of that minigun. Going a bit further up, she hit a dead end close to the top. Where life closed a door, however, karma opened a window. " _Oh, you want me to have fun? Heh, fine, I'll show you fun…_ "

 **Back to Syber...**

Syber fought unbelievably well, alternating between rushes and feints, always one step ahead of Behemoth, or rather, behind him, taking pot shots at his legs and dragging his HP down to 40% all by himself. Sadly, his victory was short lived, for his aforementioned 2 magazines were now empty. "What's wrong little girl? Out of ammo?" Behemoth's mockery got Syber riled up, which was unfortunate for Behemoth, even if it didn't seem like it at first. "Now you're just being coy!"

Behemoth thought Syber was rushing at him to stab like he did with previous guy. He wasn't wrong, but he was wrong in thinking he could piss Syber off. He was already triggered beyond words, that shout was just pretending to fall for the taunt. Instead, he jumped as high as he could, barely avoiding the bullets and landing right beside the spinning pipes. Then, he yelled "SHORYUKEN!" Along with an uppercut to Behemoth's jawline. Finally, he used the momentum to jump over the brute and grabbed onto his ammo box.

Syber almost stabbed his blade into Behemoth's skull, but he got desperate, enough to let go of the his gun's trigger. The brute's grip got hold of Syber's head, after which he pulled him out and slammed him against the ground. "Now die!" He pinned the lad against the ground with his gun's pipes. Being forced to look up made him realize something important. "Ah, so that's how we go here." Behemoth realized Syber wasn't looking at him so he looked up and, lo and behold, a falling Sinon reading her aim. "YOLOOOOO!"

Everything happened in a few split seconds. Behemoth thought he could take her out, but even though he managed to fire at her, thanks to Syber, who saw an opening to got the hell outta dodge and whistled at Behemoth, all he hit were her legs. Sinon on the other hand, landed a devastating headshot that went through him and made a significant dent on the ground below.

Syber showed his thumb at Sinon, but after a moment he realized she was legless, so he ran to try and catch her. "Oh no, you won't!" Sinon positioned herself above her rifle, thinking Syber was after a happy accident. In the end, he plain missed her, so she plummeted into the ground. "I f**king hate you, karma." Sinon moaned, but Syber more or less ignored it and just offered her a hand up.

Sinon at first refused… Before realizing that she's got no freaking legs. "Fine…" She then grabbed Syber's hand, and then asked "Tell me… How the hell did you do that?" Syber glanced to the sides and answered "Well, I just figured I'd analyzed the situation… And improvise from there." Sinon naturally didn't buy that. "You're lucky that I need you to walk me back to the town. Cause otherwise… I'd shoot you in the knee caps." Syber was naturally intimidated by her response and said "Yes, Boss!"

"Well, mission accomplished at least… Now, about our pay…" Sinon looked at Dyne, who then opened up his menu and transferred 200,000 credits to Sinon's account, while he gave Syber 95,000 credits… Though the five thousand added credits were because of the bet. "I guess this is reasonable. Thanks!" Syber said, before going back to carrying Sinon.

 **To Be Continued...**


	4. Phantom Tempest (Prologue, Part 1)

The following is a non-profit Fanfiction.  
Sword Art Online is owned by Aniplex, A-1 Pictures and Reki Kawahara.  
Please support the official release…

 **Chapter 4: Phantom Tempest** (Prologue - Part 1)

 _After the Behemoth thing… Not a lot happened. We walked back to the city, sold the loot and split the credits between the two groups. Sinon and got most of our profits, but I still got those 5.000 Dyne owed me. The rest of the weekend was boring. Turns out that most pro-players don't go beyond fridays. Neither do I, not after that lousy excuse for a saturday. You'd think a server full of high schoolers, part-timers and scrubs in general would be fun to plow through…  
_

 _Don't ask about sunday, we don't talk about those here. As for Monday…_

* * *

 **Monday (5 Days to BoB Prelims) - GGO's Western End…**

 _That last week before the Preliminary Round was supposed to be nothing but prep-time with Sinon. She told me that I had potential, but then she said something I didn't understand. "Waiting for your foe to say the magic words that'll piss you off is far from a solid strategy." I had no idea what she meant by that, but I guess it was her way of saying I shouldn't rely on luck?_

Despite having a bike at his side, Syber was walking through a sandstorm in the middle of a desert. He was alone for once, and he seemed pretty pissed off. "Some moron rams his car headfirst into the gym, bandits and mobs every 5 minutes, fresh out of ammo and then there was that lunatic with the EMP Grenades. How am I lucky again?" While he mumbled, Syber tried starting the bike's engine again and again, but the thing refused to work. "If I ever meet the dev who made those grenades, I'm choking the green out of their lifebar. C'mon!"

 _Neither me nor Sinon were available on Mondays, I'd hit the gym after class and she had some… Unspecified Appointment. However, the gym didn't open that monday thanks to some car accident involving a held-back punk from another high school, a fatty freshman and a third year girl who got said punk suspended. Though I don't think he'll be coming back after that stunt he pulled… And that's why I was free that monday. Since we had no plans for the day, I decided to goof off on my own. There was a place I've been meaning to check out, but I had to be alone because the fun nazi was adamant about not wanting to go there…_

Took Syber two fights against sandstorm mobs and most of his soda cans, but he eventually got the bike working. It proved enough for Syber to ride his way out of the storm, but it turns out that he wasted too much fuel fighting mobs on motorcycles, barely got to ride 10 minutes before it stopped for good. To make things worst, he used up all the soda to kick start it before, so he couldn't MacGyver his way out of this one. It wasn't all bad news though, for as soon as he dragged the 3-wheeler up a flat hill he found what was looking for. "No way… It really is a thing…"

It was nothing impressive when compared to the massive Sci-Fi landscape that is SBC Glocken (the Capital) or some of the harder dungeons, but it had the kind of charm Syber had been looking for a while now. A small town with small wooden buildings, no more than 4 roads and not a single bit of over the top sci-fi, ruins or wastelands. "This is it… The Wild West-themed town!"

* * *

 **The Wild Frontier City - Sling's Haven...**

Though lacking in size, it was easy to see why so many people (with the exception of fun nazis and otherwise killjoys) go through that ungodly roadtrip. First thing Syber noticed upon setting foot in town was the absence of a safe zone prompt. The reason for that, as he soon found out the amusingly hard way, was that players can challenge each other for genuine duels, just like in the movies. "Hey you! I challenge you to a duel- Whoa! I remember you, you're that girl from the Echo-"

After reminding that poor sap some manner via shotgun blast to the mouth, Syber stopped to appreciate just how satisfying being able to shoot peeps in a safe zone felt. "What's this…Duel mode? Oooh, I see now. Sinon was prolly butthurt over this Pistol Clause, I doubt her SMG would qualify for this." Moving on, Syber noticed other interesting things, exotic guns and gear you won't find anywhere else, tumbleweeds spawned whenever things got too quiet, and, best of all, the town had a Saloon, which Syber could tell just from peeking through the door. "Minigames. So that's what the Haven part stands for…"

* * *

 **Hard-boiled Saloon - The Salty Spitoon…**

The atmosphere was quite rowdy, unlike the oppressing vibe Syber gets from Sinon's usual hangouts. Tables with card games, boards for throwing darts on the far wall, Untouchable's cousin from another mother, even one of those old pianos with a wheel for music sheets, everything inside that place was a minigame. "Couldn't have fun to save her own damn life, could she? Jesus…"

"Welcome to the Salty Spitoon, how tough are ya?" Perplexed by the barman's odd choice in words, Syber sat down and took a moment to get a better grasp of his surroundings. Or rather, to profile the people there. "Decent gun variety, Assault Rifles instead of SMGs, grenades instead of just ammo… A decent squad by Sinon's standards. Don't think Pros would be this far from everything during the week though, so who are these guys…?"

When his drink arrived, Syber thanked the fellow who brought it over… But then he realized something important: "I didn't over this." The would-be waiter sat down, took off his cowboy hat and explained himself. "Terribly sorry for the deceit Sir, I'm actually a player." Though Syber was quick to apologize, explaining the similar outfit led him to mistaking the lad for an NPC, but that was the point. "You see, I was practicing my roleplay. That will be 260 Credits, by the way."

Syber glanced at the bottle he brought over. A light blue liquid called Agave Azul, classified by the game as Tequila, though the brand was likely made up. "Now, to answer your question. You won't find too many mid-tier players in GGO, but we do in fact exist." He took off the dark brown hat, left it on the table and poured two shots of the drink. "Most of us usually steer clear of Pro-Players though. We tend to avoid trigger-happy harlots as well." Finally, the two raised their glasses and cheered, then the drinking started…

* * *

 **20 Minutes Later...**

"...and then the jerk pins me down, but I start smiling and by the time he figured out what was going on it was too late. Boss was falling down the tower, yelling 'YOLO' before putting one right through his nose. The odd part is that she dropped a minigun, but it wasn't the model he was using against us. It was like, _Congrats on beating that boss, here's a watered-down version of his weapon cuz the real deal is too OP for you right now._ " It was clear from their red cheeks and shaky balance that the drinks did something to them. They weren't drunk for real, though, Syber could tell…

"This is so phony… Being drunk feels nothing like this milquetoast imitation." Syber's new friend confirmed his theory, claiming it was just a debuff made to resemble being drunk, but he wanted to know how Syber knew what it felt like being drunk for real, claiming he looked underaged. "My father dragged me to a party last year and I drank some by accident. Unlike you, that waiter was rude and careless." He chuckled at that last part, then inquired about the party. "Hell if I know, my Dad's political career is the last thing I want to think about, especially when I'm playing GGO." Weary of this phony sensation, he got up and headed out. The lad picks up his hat and follows suit, though not before finishing the bottle.

* * *

 **Outside…**

One thing Syber felt like clarifying before putting that topic in its coffin: "He's not an actual politician, he a diplomat in Washington." On a brighter note, the guy introduced himself at long last, "Though some might call me a _Junk Hoarder_ , I prefer the term _Unusual Gear Enthusiast_. But you may call me Samir, pleased to make your acquaintance." No matter how hard he tried, Syber couldn't get the idea that Samir was an NPC off his mind. "Too polite, even for a roleplay. Heck, I don't think my father's lackeys are that formal… And I just realized I said that out loud…"

The two chuckled over that, after which Syber noticed it. "You weren't kidding about the debuff though, gone like magic." As Samir explained while they were drinking, he recently finished just about everything there was to be done in that Saloon, including tasting all the drinks, so he had plenty of time to figure out everything there was to know about that status effect. The only part Syber remembered was him saying that tequilas were the only enjoyable drinks though. "Quite, though I'm sure it was a design flaw. Many adult players claim real drinks taste somewhat better."

Then, a moment of silence came about. With their senses back to full sharpness, each noticed the other's pistol. Syber's Gunblade hogged the spotlight as per usual, but so did Samir's Magnum, which completely overshadowed the Photon Rifle on his back. "I know I said everything, but the Barkeep won't let people duel inside the Saloon." Knowing full well where Samir was going, Syber sort taunted him, saying he didn't expect Samir to be so eager about it. "Reminds me of myself when I'm pissed, only with less symbolism and more going straight to the point."

* * *

 **Main Street - Duel Field...**

_No reloads, Pistols Only… Last Stand Sling._ Those were the rules set by Samir, though Syber didn't know what that last part was about. "Should neither of us be defeated, the game will evaluate our performance to determine the winner. We're unable to leave the field, but it won't stop others from walking in and out. It should go without saying, but you're not allowed to attack me with your blade. Now, are you ready?"

Standing back to back, each took 9 steps. As their feet landed for the 10th time, said field stretched out in front of them, after which they quickly turned their hips and gun arms around and begun shooting one another. Although Syber's reflexes weren't enough to give him the first shot, all Samir did was a scratch to Syber's chestplate. Syber on the other hand missed his first shot entirely, but it stopped Samir in his tracks, netting Syber a clean 2nd shot through his leg. "Clever little trick." Samir chuckle was understandably aggressive compared to before.

Instead of resort to what he referred to as trickery, Samir went with with a carefully placed shot that punched through Syber's shoulder, nearly tearing his arm off. Samir would have to one up himself next time however, as Syber got the hang of his timing and dodged the next shot. It didn't help that Syber's legs were undamaged, but Samir figured a clean shot there wouldn't be doable for his pistol. Following up on his dodge, Syber put a couple bullets on Samir's elbow and stomach respectively. _Rats. He knows I have to go for his vitals to keep up with that hand cannon. And he says I'M clever..._

In general lines, their duel was very back and forth, all the way to their last bullets. Despite his advantages in ammo and speed, it only took Samir 2 clean hits and one scratch to even the game. The way Samir handled his Magnum, although different in concept, felt very much like Sinon with her Hecate. Even so, Samir had acknowledge Syber as more than just an amateur with high numbers. "Hate to say, but you're pretty darn good yourself. Now, GIVE ME YOUR BEST- …oh no."

Dismissing that as a jest, Samir fired his last bullet without hesitation. But when Syber took the bullet without putting up any fight, Samir realized that wasn't case. He was too late, however, as whatever Syber was looking at bolted past Samir, heading straight to a very wounded Syber. "Not this crap again!" Upon drawing his blade, Syber forfeited the duel, but at least he deflected that mysterious assailant. By the time Samir laid eyes upon this assailant, they had already retreated, running away at tremendous speed. Syber tried to use his last bullet on them, but he missed. "A hit and run…?"

* * *

 **City Hall - Minutes Later…**

Unlike the town around it, the building's inside was just like every City Hall in GGO. Once inside, the two had their health fully restored, after which they sat down and Syber explained some stuff. "In short… I have no idea what that guy wants, but they've been at it all day today."

Samir found that to be quite amusing, in particular about their choice in gear. "I wonder if that person was one of the victims of that rumor. Probably not, given they knew how to use that Void Suit." Syber didn't ask, but Samir explained it anyway. "That suit is one of the items I seek. Its changes the user's weight according to how many belts and clothing they wear. Supposedly, since the suit itself is not counted, their weight gets multiplied by zero and thus voided. In real life, that would be the equivalent of being in outer space, but it didn't seem to be the case…"

Normally, Syber would've found that to be quite interesting, but he was too annoyed about that unknown player, who was dubbed "Speed Demon" by Samir, to care about trivial facts. "Well, did you try fighting back? I don't think they have much Health." Only problem to that plan was that Syber tried bullet, slug, lead and blade alike, but nothing worked. "Too fast to be gunned down, and the best I managed was to parry his attacks with my blade."

Samir thought about this conundrum for a short while, during which Syber toyed with his gunblade, flipping the blade in and out, until he cut his thumb on the blade as it came back. "The infamous Finger Reaper at work, I suppose. Never seen the trap mechanism in action until now though… Wait a moment… Yes, that could work. Why not set a trap for the Speed Demon?" Syber dismissed the idea, but then he remember something and changed his mind. "I got it!"

* * *

 **Town's Outskirts - 15 Minutes Later…**

Back on that flat-topped hill where Syber left his bike. Samir was nowhere to be seen while Syber was having a look at that engine, another mini-game that Sinon hated with a passion, though it didn't seem to be Syber's favorite either. "Work, you stupid heap of junk, I need you to outrun that bastard… Oh, here we go again. Incoming!" As Syber got up and readied his guns, a trail of smoke begun cycling the hill at high speed. For all its speed, the Speed Demon's tactic was far from silent, and Syber was getting fed up with that sound.

That standstill continued for about half a minute, Syber had both guns ready to fire while the Demon pulled a high-speed Jaws on the him. "I've had enough of this guy. Do it… Now!" At his command, Syber pointed both guns north. The catch to the plan was that, when Speed Demon got close to the north side, its path was blocked by a barrage of lasers coming from further north. _They can't risk taking a hit, so they won't cross this line. Which way to go, then? I'm shooting from sea level, so the safest place would be the high ground to the right. Right into Syber's aim. Not a bad plan… But will you land that shot, Syber?_

Everything was going according to Syber's plan: The Devil ran up the flat hill from the north side, right into Syber's aim. Syber fired as soon as he heard the lasers, so it was a split second dodge the likes of which even that hero guy from Aincrad would miss if he flinched… Or so Syber thought would happen. What actually happened: instead of a perfect 90° degrees turn, the Demon did a 50° to 60° turn, so when they entered Syber's sight it was far from the expected and, once again, Syber only managed to deflect their knife before another lightning fast retreat.

 **= TO BE CONTINUED**

 **Credits for this chapter go to my co-writer: Sonny Firestorm**


	5. Phantom Tempest (Prologue, Part 2)

The following is a non-profit Fanfiction.  
Sword Art Online, is owned by A-1 Pictures, Aniplex and Reki Kawahara.  
Please support the official release.

 **Chapter 5: Phantom Tempest** (Prologue - Part 2)

 _After my plan failed, we made it back to the Saloon. That annoyance wouldn't be able to run n' gun in that small building. Would've been nice if they tried though, place had no safe zone status to keep us from harming them. At least I got to park my bike somewhere safe, and I filled the tank up…_

After a quick round of that tequila, Syber stepped outside furious while Samir tried to calm him down. "If it's any consolation, I did not foresee that outcome either." But that fell on semi-deaf ears. "Yeah, but you still figured it wouldn't work, did you?" After a hard stare, Samir gave up and admitted to that. He was half expecting Speed Demon to either slide under his laser stream or hop over it. "I mean no offense Syber, but what did you expect?" Samir then explained that area was unsuited for hunting someone the likes of their target.

Syber dared Samir to come up with a better trap, seeing as he was such a know-it-all, but Samir had already planned a trap himself. "We'll need explosives and a wagon for your bike." That felt like overkill, any one player can stuff just about anything on inventory regardless of size or number. Samir didn't explain himself, he simply asked if Syber had ever seen a Mutant Armadillo. "No, but what does that have to do with anything?"

* * *

 **South of Slinger's Haven - Armadillo Nesting Grounds…**

The place was a wide, chaotic system of tunnels inside a small mountain, most leading to a large cave in the middle. Due to its strange inhabitants, who quite literally rolled around the cave, the whole thing felt a racing track of sorts. "So… Your plan is…?" Samir jumped from his bike over to Simon's and detached the wagon at the center of that area. "Quite, allow me a bit of time to explain in detail-"

Syber didn't let him finish, however, due to time constraints. Apparently they had about 5 to 10 minutes before Speed Demon tracked them down. "Se it tup now, details later." Samir wasn't happy about that at all, but Syber made a solid argument. While avoiding the beasts, one rigged all the tunnels and gaps in the mountain's wall with explosives while the other set motion sensors at the main entrance. "Are we good to go?" Syber asked, but Samir had one last thing to do. "I just have to cover the wagon up. There, we are ready. Now, what you have to do-" Once again, Samir was stopped in his tracks. This time, however, he stopped on his own as the two heard the black blur's arrival.

Unlike before, Samir finally got a good look on the game for this evening: a black, skin-tight suit with high tech textures around the torso area, a matching visor hiding their nose and everything above, and last but not least their knife. Even if the game labeled it a bayonet, that was too knife-like to be one. Just as Samir planned, the Demon triggered the sensors, sealing off all the tunnels and the exit behind them with debris too heavy for someone without a single point in STR to lift. It was high time Samir hid somewhere safe, which he did without drawing attention to himself.

As for Syber, he stood atop the wagon at the cave's center, which the Armadillos avoided because, unlike Speed Demon, they were smart enough to make turns. He pulled his shotgun fired a single bullet straight up, that didn't draw any aggro from the mobs, but it made them panic nonetheless. Apparently that, too, was part of Samir's plan, and if Syber was reading into it right, that just made most of the room substantially more dangerous to himself, but even more so to his foe. Syber readied the gunblade and taunted Speed Demon into attacking him.

Silent, but certainly not devoid of expression, Speed Demon planted their knife on a rock and held onto it while kicking and pressing against the floor with their feet, likely to build up speed in that tight spot. "If my theory is correct… Ah, there they go." Yet again, Speed Demon did just as Samir hoped: throwing caution off the window and going for a high-speed leap followed by a downward stab at Syber. Everything was according to keikaku…

Until Syber fired inside the wagon below his feet. "Oh no…" That set off a beeping sound from below the wooden lid. It was at that, Syber knew… He f*cked up. But it was quite surprising that neither the issuing explosion, nor Speed Demon or the wall crash that didn't happen by the way, Samir somehow calculated for Syber to land safely on the high ground, none of that did him in. What actually finished Syber off…

* * *

 **Back at the Saloon…**

"It was the freaking Armadillos!" Stomps and shouts filled the Saloon, yet Syber's anger only confused Samir, who seemed pretty alright that his plan was foiled, given how calculating he comes off. "Yes, that was my plan. Had you dodged Speed Demon's attack, the mobs would've recognized them as the one who caused the explosion. With nowhere to run and no weapons that could pierce their hides, Speed Demon would've been done for… Yet, from your reaction to realizing this, you took the heat for yourself. Quite puzzling indeed…"

That didn't irritate Syber as much as Samir suggesting he was against harming peaceful mobs, which he did. This led Syber into doing something no one believed possible: taking a page off of Sinon's Book. "Why would I care about NPCs? They're loot for crafting armor upgrades for all I care! But I refuse to take them out with a trap, my pride doesn't allow it." Though Samir was very good at not showing it, that annoying him almost as much as it confused that self-styled waiter. "Excuse me…?"

Astute readers would assume this to be that point where the conversation rapidly spirals into a fallout of the two, likely followed by a reconciliation of some sort. You'd be wrong, despite Samir being on the verge of losing his cool. What actually happened was Syber saying some unexpected things. "You know what sucked about today? Nothing. Got the perfect excuse to skip cardio day, logged in GGO early, made it through the toughest road trip of my life, got challenged to a cowboy duel, failed at doing traps Looney Tunes-style and I'm almost getting over my fear of alcohol. Today was the most fun I've had in a really long while, actually…"

Those words were piquing Samir's curiosity, which wasn't a rare occurrence, but his silence in a conversation was. "What I'm trying to say is that I'm not trying to dispose of that prick because of all the trouble he got me into. Half the fun was his doing, now that I stop to think about it… Anyway, what I want is to make him fight me for real, not this hit 'n run BS! It's a waste of his potential. Also my patience, I'm not handling this blue-balling well…"

Not that his words were a magnificent speech or anything, far from it, but Samir felt a sense of satisfaction from Syber's confession. "The maturity to see Gun Gale for the game it is, and even so, you seek your fun with drive of a pro-player. This sort of rare find is what makes these endeavors of mine worthwhile." Goes without saying, Syber didn't get what he meant, but perhaps that was Samir's intent. Either way, he suggested they continue this conversation at his "secret" hideout.

* * *

 **Samir's Shooting Range - Some Time Later…**

Another rocky spot, only this one was a canyon not too far from Slinger's Haven. No traps nor explosives this time, only the boys testing Samir's target practice course. The fiend's arrival took the two by complete surprise, as Syber yelled in rage. "How did he find this place?!"

" _Given your goal, I doubt this will be as surefire of a plan as my usual variety…"  
"That's okay. Your usual variety wasn't all that either…"  
"I… Touche, Syber. I'll be sure to remember that. Moving on to this arena's specs…"_

Samir seemed to dash towards Speed Demon, but in truth he was fleeing towards the exit. All the while Syber emptied a magazine trying to hit that pesky stalker of his. "I'm truly sorry, dear Syber, but you're on your own." In response, Syber yelled some nasty words in English, which neither the Demon nor Samir understood, but he didn't care. "Fine, didn't ask anyways… Now, come at me, you bastard!"

" _I'll make my way to the entrance to block it with a large boulder. Just like before, that is the only safe way out of this area, I made sure of it…"  
_  
The fight seemed like it was going nowhere until Syber shot a wall way before Speed Demon got to it. Despite Syber's gun using a live ammo, that shot resulted in a plasma explosion, as if he had shot a rocket or grenade. Despite taking some scrap damage, his nemesis jumped off the wall in time. Their life had gone a few points into the red though…

" _Why would you have to cover this place in mines? Sure sounds like a great way to keep curious people away, but ain't it dangerous for you too?"_  
 _"The canyon's perimeter is covered with mines, yes. But the walls only a few. I rarely get close to them, but your foe might want to run across them, so you have to do something about it before they get themselves killed…"_

Took a few more explosions for Speed Demon to get the hint that neither were going anywhere. Once they did, Syber deliberately threw away his magazines, shells and shotgun. "I don't care if think I'm being stupid, just fight me like you mean it." Still not a word, but that clearly poked at the Demon's pride, so they more or less accepted the challenge. Once again, they ran, kicked off walls and moved around like crazy, but this time that felt more like a shark circling its prey before diving in for a bite. Syber, too, prepared himself.

This sort of focus was nothing like that time with Behemoth, but for standards, it was a pretty intense… Well, intensity. Second felt several times longers, the Demon's laps around the area were in slow motion, which looked like someone running at normal speed in comparison. It didn't take long, however, for Speed Demon to lunge at Syber from the side, flying through the air like a human-sized bullet.

Syber plan was simple and quite literally a blunt one: If he were to break that knife, there'd be no way for his enemy to harm him. It was either that or scratching someone about to die, only a matter of nuance, really. His move looked more like a punch and a blade swing, but with the gunblade sticking out to the side. The two blades clashed… But the knife didn't break.

"What…?" He thought, shocked at the sight before him. As it turns out, not only the knife didn't break, which sounded quite ludicrous since he knew for a fact they had clashed blades, it also served as leverage for Speed Demon to spin in place, like one of those wonky video-game physics when taken to extremes, resulting in the speedster rotating to the side for a second strike right at Syber's throat. Even if his eyes could keep up, his body couldn't keep up, so he just closed them…

"Oh well, better luck next time."

When he opened his eyes, Syber was very confused. He was alive for one, and when he looked down he saw Speed Demon on the floor, with the "dead" pop-up floating above them. It was then that Samir, who Syber believed gone from the immediate area, revealed himself. "How did you- no, WHAT did you…?" Samir only said he'd explain things later, as they had an interrogation to pull off at the moment…

* * *

 **Slinger's Haven - One Respawn Cycle Later…**

The second Speed Demon re-spawned, Samir used a stun grenade and Syber shot their legs off. By the time they regained sight, the two had their big guns pointed at the Demon's face.

"Alright speedy, out with it. What do you want from me?" It was then that Syber found out why Speed Demon hadn't said a word all this time. They opened the visor covering their face to reveal a girl's face, which seemed to shock Syber but not Samir. "So my assumption was correct after all. Sigh… At this rate, I wouldn't be surprised if you done all this over Syber's triumph in that ridiculous cowboy minigame…"

His disappointment was twofold, not only he was right again, but her reaction gave it away far too easily. Syber in the meantime was still processing the gender mishap, which was quite the irony, really, but once he heard this was about Untouchable his brain clicked something in place: "After I beat that thing, lots of people were asking how that worked, so instead of answering the question dozens of times I wrote the solution in GGO's Forum… Knew that would come back to bite me in the ass."

He then readied his shotgun and explained to the lass that Samir already got her blade from that last kill, so all that was left was her outfit. "Sorry that I have to deny you even more, and I guess I'm sorry for technically stripping you naked, but you REALLY need to stop relying on that suit. Farewell-" Yet Samir stopped him for some reason. "Would you mind if I got this kill as well? I've been meaning to add that suit to my collection for some time now…"

As far as Syber was concerned, Samir's collection was a better fate than Syber's trash bin, which is where that suit would've gone to otherwise, but it was a simple matter of trading the item so there was no need for Samir to off her himself. Samir insisted, however, as he wasn't sure if that suit had trading restrictions. "I'd rather not have to kill you until I drop the right piece of gear, which is what we'd have to do if that item is restricted."

"Meh, do it then." Funnily enough, once Syber backed off, Samir's had an off-character moment of his own. He turned to Syber, as if backing away, but then he rested his Stream Gun over his shoulder and pulled the trigger. Even more surprising was that he landed a headshot! He told Syber he's been meaning to try that execution style for a while now, but the opportunity just wasn't showing itself, so he decided to make one. "The person who taught me this execution said it was called Shoulder Death which, given their ice-blue color motif, was likely a cold shoulder pun. Thus, if you can think of a better name, I'm all ears…"

* * *

 **Take a Wild Guess Where - Several Rounds of Tequila Later...**

"Texas Shoulder! No, we need something you can pronounce or it'd come off weeb-ish. How about… Tequila Shoulder, then?" Samir almost didn't hold his laugher back after that one, but when Syber pointed his ability to pronounce drink names in english was so good he might as well call it "Shoulder Wait" it got too hard to hold back. "I think you had enough Syber, go home! Hahahahaha, sigh…"

On a less comical note, Syber went back to something that's been bothering him since they left the canyon. "What were you doing back in the shooting range anyways? Didn't you seal off the exit?" It was then that Samir revealed a rare instance of him not following the plan. "It was her knife, you see, I knew I recognized it from somewhere. Took me far longer than it should have, however. See for yourself." He then showed the knife, which he still had, then he offered it to Syber as a trade.

"Since I'm keeping that suit, it's only fair you should keep the knife." Once the trade was finished, Syber noticed its specs were… Uncanny, to say the least. "High specs for such a low price…?" It was then that it hit him. "This is marine blue… It's the same as my gunblade! So that's why it didn't break!" Samir pointed out that it was likely choice, not chance. After all, she was out for vengeance on Syber, so it stood to reason she'd get a blade as strong as his. "As for the exit, I sealed them as planned. I reached that alcove by climbing a wall. Yes, it was covered in mines, but I can see them because I was the one who planted them. Also because my SEN is higher than yours."

Syber took the opportunity to ask one thing Sinon never bother to explain to him: What each stat does. Samir was surprised to hear that sort of question, but then again, it's not like in-game tutorials or wikias explained that stuff. "I'm sure this Sinon person explained what STR and CON improve, since she had you focus on those, so I'll cover the rest: LCK improves critical and drop rates; DEX improves crafting and bullet circle; AGI improves speed in general; as for SEN, my favorite stat, it sharpens a player's senses."

That made Syber wonder if Sinon was secretly a good craftswoman, but Samir seemed a little dismissive of the idea. "It's counterproductive, Snipers steer clear of the action. Hence they'd make for poor scavengers." Even so, the image of Sinon in a blacksmith apron popped in his mind… Before a large caliber bullet popped his thought bubble. "Yikes, I can almost feel her wrath." Syber said, but as Samir subtly pointed out, the angry girl who walked in was real. And she no-scoped the barkeep before he could pull out his blunderbus. Jesus…

* * *

 **Outside...**

Next thing you know, Syber was being dragged by his feet, frozen by fear. "I take it you are Sinon?" Samir was a little nervous too, given she killed one of those mobs players shouldn't be able to beat. Her ice-cold eyes were especially chilly today, but nowhere near as cold as her voice. "What do you want?" She asked. Samir didn't reply, but he pointed at Syber's bike, which she seemed to have missed on her way in. "Pleasure meeting you, Sniper Queen." That was as far as Samir's courage could take him, though, so he backed the fuck out…

* * *

 _My punishment? Don't ask questions whose answers you don't want to hear. Suffice to say she broke a brutality record, and it lasted 2 days worth of training for the BoB Prelims next Saturday. I wouldn't see Samir again until after the Prelims either, but he did text me…_

 **SAMIR:** Can you chat?  
 **SYBER:** Lemme check…  
 **SYBER:** Coast is clear. Go on.  
 **SAMIR:** I got two things you should know. First, look at this…  
 **SYBER:** A link to some GGO news, eh?  
 **SYBER:** What the?! Yamikaze got rekt? How did this happen?  
 **SAMIR:** Several people, Yamikaze included, are claiming some sort of ghost ambushed and killed them. Personally, I think this might have something to do with the rumored Vendetta Mobs.  
 **SYBER:** What are those?

 **SAMIR:** Not shoes, for one. As the name implies, they spawn near players with high killstreaks to end their streaks. According to the data miners, however, this feature doesn't exist in-game.  
 **SYBER:** Strange…  
 **SYBER:** Maybe a dev went rogue and hid it into the game's code or something?  
 **SAMIR:** That's what data mining checks for… Still, maybe they just haven't discovered it yet.  
 **SYBER:** Right, and what was the other thing you mentioned?  
 **SAMIR:** A bit of advice. What is your relationship with Sinon? Do you know her in real life?  
 **SYBER:** Nop. Met her in-game two week ago. She helped me get started.

 **SAMIR:** Don't take her at face value. Something about her seems fishy…  
 **SYBER:** Meaning…?  
 **SAMIR:** I don't think she's hiding anything, but I believe she has plans for you. It's a common practice among high-level players…

 **SYBER:** Okay…?  
 **SAMIR:** Just come talk to me once she starts saying and doing unusual things.  
 **SYBER:** Oh ok, now I get it.

* * *

 **POST STORY DATA**

 **Syber Stats** (Lv 43)  
 **STR** 15 / **CON** 15 / **AGI** 13 / **DEX** 1 / **SEN** 3 / **LCK** 1

 **Samir's Stats** (Lv 45)

 **STR** 10 / **CON** 9 / **AGI** 10 / **DEX** 10 / **SEN** 11 / **LCK** 1

 **Speed Demon's Stats** (Lv 41)

 **STR** 2 / **CON** 1 / **AGI** 40 / **DEX** 1 / **SEN** 1 / **LCK** 1


	6. Gunner-X

The following is a non-profit Fanfiction.  
Sword Art Online is owned by A-1 Pictures, Aniplex and Reki Kawahara.  
Please support the official release…

 **Gale Warriors Chapter 6: Gunner-X**

 _I scolded Syber enough to last the week… He think twice before going to Slinger's Haven again, and that was the end of that. Today, I'm meeting a friend IRL…_

Shino Asada, known throughout GGO as Sinon, was about to meet up with an old friend in Shibuya: Kyoji Shinkawa. "Hey, what's going on, Asada?" He arrived waving at Asada, which she didn't like very much. "Oh… Not much, just… You know, the whole thing with people… I guess." Her response was a complete deadpan. "Great! Now, how about we go eat?" Asada's look was one of annoyance. " _Really? That place again?"_ Though Shinkawa used the milkshake argument, which persuaded her on the spot. The two then went into a cafe nearby…

* * *

 **In the Cafe…**

Their table was by the front window, as per Shinkawa's request. The waitress assumed they were on a date, but Shino was quick to dismiss the notion. "So, how are things? In GGO, I mean." Shino shrugged, there wasn't much going on. "Even so, it's been taxing…"

Curious, Shinkawa raised an eyebrow, but Shino begun venting out her frustrations on her own, which was a first. Before he knew it, she had narrated all major events to happen so far. "Whoa… I'm gone for a few days and this happens?" Shino only nod, mainly due her mouth being dry, but she also didn't feel like talking anymore. "Just who is this person?"

"His name's Syber. The guy is reckless, unruly, his memes are all outdated, and worst of all: every time I'm close to figuring him out, he comes up with some stupid idea that somehow works. It's so freaking STUPID!" Her outburst coincided with the waitress' arrival, which startled her and almost made her drop their drinks. "H-here's a milkshake for the Miss… Oh, and here's your cola." Shinkawa nodded nervously, taking their stuff quickly to let the waitress go away.

"Why you're so worked up over this guy? If he's a problem, just take him down. I mean, you took out Behemoth for crying out loud." Shino then revealed why she didn't do it: "He's not a rival… He's my bouncer." That shocked poor Kyoji, who thought that was a joke. "Don't get the wrong idea. I can't stand the guy, but his skills are exactly what I need." Shino then sighed, then did the Gendo Pose.

 _Then there's that thing he does. A mysterious state, enhanced precision, near-perfect reflexes and his asspulls get even more ludicrous. Could it be a split personality? No wait, he doesn't get memory lapses, not as far as I can tell. Maybe he's roleplaying, pretending to be like one of those anime protagonists with wonky powers… Nah, he would've slipped up by now. Wait, what if he's a hacker? It would explain the absurdity… Oh wait, the devs already reviewed his gameplay footage, he's clean. Sigh… This is going nowhere._ "Shino…?" _I need more intel…_ "Shino?" _I need…_ "Shiiiinooo…?" _More..._

"SHINO!" After several attempts, Shinkawa finally got through to her. "Aren't you going to drink it? It's gonna melt." She suddenly grabbed her cold drink and got up. "Sorry, but forgot to do some stuff, going now. Same time next week!" She left the money on the table and bolted out of there. Her friend was left sighing, wondering about things. "Syber… I feel like I've heard the name before… But where…?"

* * *

 **A Couple Hours Later - Back Inside GGO…**

Sinon had approached Syber, who had been waiting for her. "You look bored." Syber gave her a quick nod. "You haven't the faintest clue." She sat next to him, and shared an image with him. "By now, you're used to just about anything a casual can throw at you, yeah?" Syber had no idea what that had to do with this girl, but thinking back, they did run into an awful lot of idiots with SMGs shouting "YOLO!" and whatnot. "Just recalling that weekend makes me feel stupid. Your point?"

Sinon smirked, which made him worry. "You know why they do these prelims? It's to filter out casuals, so they can't make it to the Battle Royale. So expect to run into pros as early as the second round." Sinon showed Syber a screenshot of a silver-haired girl in a bikini top and tight shorts. "You have until tomorrow to defeat her. She's most likely using a 5 Star Sniper Rifle, so it will be the first thing she drops. Bring me that as proof." Sinon then got up, walked a few steps and turned around. "Also…"

The moment she looked away, Sinon also pulled out her SMG and shot Syber's finger out, which just so happened to be looming over Samir's contact info. "You're going solo. Which, of course, translates to no stupid-cowboy-friends." As she walked around the bench, Sinon grabbed his shoulders and whispered in Syber's ear. "This is going to hurt. A lot. If you break, no way you'll survive the Prelims." She let him go, but her presence felt like it still loomed over him.

"You're still mad about Slinger's Haven… Aren't you?" Sinon shook her head and denied it. "Had this planned out since Behemoth, actually." Syber rolled his eyes in disbelief. Also, he did the stupid thing and asked what Sinon's beef with that girl was. "If you must know… Because I was busy baby-sitting a certain someone, I had to turn down lotsa jobs. This bitch, her name's Gunner-X by the way, found out about that, now she's hogging all the good jobs. That enough for you?" Sinon then walked away, saying she had stuff to do IRL and wouldn't be back that day.

* * *

 **Capital City - Somewhere Along the Northern Side…**

After failing to learn anything useful from Sinon's contacts, Syber took a break near a spot Samir told him about. He was watching people walking about from a bridge. "Y'know… I have to take this gal down on my own… But Sinon never say I couldn't get intel from Samir." He looked at his friend list one more time, but changed his mind. "She's being extra bitchy about it, but it'd be an empty victory otherwise…"

Some passerby heard that and asked if that was about Sinon. "What the…? Oh, it's you. Dyne, was it?" Indeed, it was Sinon's old pal Dyne. He asked if Syber wanted to join in the next manhunt, but Syber had to refuse. "Got the BoB this weekend and all." Hearing that Syber signed up surprised him, but it made sense. "What's with the Gunner-X pic though?"

After hearing Syber's problem, Dyne said he'd be happy to help. "That Behemoth thing turned out to be good PR. Lotsa people wanting to join my squad. Anyway…" With a world map in hands, Dyne highlighted an area northwest of the Battleship Capital. "Fun fact: GGO Avatars can feel hot, but they can't get sunburns. Betcha thought that skimpy outfit was just for show, huh?" Syber didn't really notice it, but he said any light clothing should do it as well. "Sure, but then you'd get sand everywhere. I heard her hangout is a sunken building next to an oasis."

Oddly short on patience, Syber tried to end the conversation there, thanking Dyne on his way out, but the man stopped him. "Boy, you realize who you're beefing with? No, then sit down and listen." Dyne showed the impatient lad a video interview of his target, similar to that XeXeed stream last week. "Listen, you know how your boss is a… Ya know…" "A major bitch. I get it. We all get it. Get to the point." Though Syber rather rude, it was Dyne apologized.

"You noticed how the host in the interview kept trying to focus on her, while she drew as much attention as possible to her squad?" Syber thought it strange, but payed little mind. "Sinon can't get along with anyone, which is true for most snipers. Not this gal, she is a team player through and through. Did you notice she got no sidearm?" Another thing Syber didn't pay much attention at first. "That's so she can carry healing items for them. Skilled bodyguards backed up by the second best sniper in GGO. Still think you can beat that combo?"

Syber looked a bit odd when he walked away, but Dyne figured he'd be alright. "Real oddball, that one. Still, that could be why Sinon hasn't fired him yet…"

* * *

 **About half a mile from the Oasis Ruins…**

Compared to that trip to Slinger's Haven, this felt like going to grocery store. Syber felt silly for bringing a spare tank, which he put back in his inventory once he found a place to hide his bike. "This cave faces away from the building, perfect place to set this up." He flipped a switch in his bike and took the keys, then he his binoculars.

The place had to be the one, it matched Dyne's description to a fault, a building sunk into the desert sands with an oasis next to it, it also had something shiny at the top, likely his target's scope. "From the looks of it, the wind up there could easily mess up long shots… Yet that scope ain't moving much, so it must be someone incredibly skilled… or stubborn, works either way."

Next, he went over his gear. Nothing out of place, shotgun and gunblade were the same as always, which was starting to annoy him, but whatever. Only change was the grenade on his belt, it was smoke instead of plasma. "Bet one of these would enough to bring down that house, but I might not be able to recover that rifle. Better safe than sorry… Can't believe I'm saying this, me of all people. Sigh…"

* * *

 **Oasis Ruins (Vicinity) - Couple minutes later…**

"Whatever sandstorm wrecked this place wasn't Darude's doing… They wouldn't have missed that oasis." Syber joked, but he was a bit nervous. Since the front had large chunks of what he assumed to be other sunken buildings, there were plenty of places to take cover, but there were also jobbers with SMGs fighting among themselves. "Matching Red vs Blue clothing, flanking movements… Is this a Team Deathmatch or something?" Syber wondered why that wasn't a thing in GGO yet, but that was not time nor place.

Though his stealth was lackluster, those jobbers were too busy killing each other to see him, or maybe they just didn't care. Either way, things were going well, a first ever since this job started, but it didn't last very long. Shortly after making it through the "red" side, Syber heard a distinctive loud shot, likely a sniper rifle, along with the sound of walls cracking and the sound of a player falling dead. That didn't give him away, rather, it was Syber carelessly sticking his head out to see what happened that got him spotted.

Perhaps it was the prospect of what a dozen SMGs could do to him, but Syber panicked and ran for his life in an uncharacteristic manner. Only issue was that he just wasn't managing to shake them off. Eventually, he got himself cornered and, obviously, riddled with bullets…

* * *

 **Back in the Cave - One Respawn Cycle Later…**

Syber was glad he set his bike as a temporary camp, as it allowed him to respawn next to it instead of his usual spawn point once. Apparently, it was a trait to his bike, and yes, he completely ignored Sinon's order/suggestion on this regard. "If she had told to pick Nitro over this, I might've listened, but double tank? Nah, too boring…"

"Alright, now let's get off the ground and…" Syber's face got stuck somewhere between funny and confused. "Why can't I get up…? And… Why I am trembling…?" Upon reflecting about it, he noticed a few interesting things about his day. "I was impatient with Dyne, planned those things with safety in mind, almost considered bending the rules and I panicked when those guys found me… Just, what the hell is wrong with me today?"

He thought about it long and hard, but the only answer he could think of, strange as it was, didn't make him feel any better. "If I took her training like I usually do, it would've been pointless. So, Sinon did the only thing she knows how to do: shifted from dispassionate cold to cruel sadism, all so I'd feel pressure… No wonder all her friends are distant. Sorry, but I'm not bending over for you, Sinon." Syber took a heavy breathe in, let it out slowly and repeated this over and over, each time going slower.

Eventually, his trembling ceased and the pressure keeping him, which Syber assumed to be a health safety measure employed by the game, lifted off his shoulders and knees. Syber stood up and checked his inventory. "One of those jobbers must've dropped my shotgun. Joke's on them, I got spares." Re-armed, Syber got out and did the whole survey thing to confirm that the dust had settled down. Figuratively, of course…

* * *

 **Oasis Ruins (Vicinity) - Back Again…**

"Alright, chill…" Sneaking around once again, only this time he was a thinking man, not panic and haste. Those jobbers weren't particularly sharp or stealthy, just numbers. Spreading his focus thin to get a general idea where most of them were was working far better than intense focus. "This is… counter-intuitive, to say the least. Still, I'm managing…"

He didn't realize this last time, but he was pretty much running in circles then. No wonder he couldn't shake them off. "Right left, left right, left… There, reached the place undetected. Just hope that sniper didn't-" As if on cue, two sniper rounds dove straight down in front of him, likely warning shots…

* * *

 **Oasis Ruin - Top Floor…**

"He noticed it?" Looming over the Team Deathmatch and Syber, a girl with silver hair, bikini top, red mini-skirt and a fancy-looking bullpup rifle. "This guy… Hey White, come check this out." A blond guy hopped over a floor gap towards her, the two observed Syber, who was barely avoiding her bullets. "He look familiar to you?" This White fellow went over their list, but didn't find a match. "So he must be that interloper from before. Hm… Kinda cute, I like it. Strong 8, almost a 9. Shame I have to put him down…"

When she set him up for a killshot, Syber was tired of dancing around like a fool, so he charged into the building. It worked in his favor, she guessed he'd fall back instead, missing her shot by a considerable margin. Despite failing to stop Syber, she seemed happy. "You three, you're up. Get down there and take him out." She turned around and wished them good luck, which pumped those three up good. As they bolted out of the floor, White asked if sending the fresh meat unsupervised was a good idea.

She pondered about it for a second, but ultimately decided it didn't matter. "I wouldn't kick them out over something trivial like this. Unlike a certain cyan sniper we know…" Her mischievous smirk was quite the stark contrast from the smile she used to wish good luck, but soon her face went back to normal. "Now back to the Deathmatch- hey, you can't step out of bounds!"

* * *

 **Oasis Ruin - Mid Floors…**

Though the sign said 6F, that was ground floor now. "Dyne was right, I got sand all over my pants…" It's inside was rough, just like the outside, but the climb was smooth until he got to the 8th Floor. There, Syber heard the welcome party coming down to greet him. "Not a whole lot from the sound of it. Still, let's see how my this tactic works on smaller groups…" _  
_  
Surprisingly, it worked. Though these guys were sharp on their own, their lack of teamwork and poor usage of the party chat made them sloppy, whih Syber's managed to exploit despite his lackluster stealth skills. After a while, it put him right behind one of them, a shotgun user no less. Syber pointed his own shotgun at his neck, though he snapped his fingers before pulling the trigger. _Gave him a chance to save himself. He didn't take it. His problem, not mine._

As the other guy, Syber stayed near the body, waiting in a shadow. That guy also used a shotgun, so his ally didn't know who fired. A minute later, the second guy found the body, just as Syber's gunblade found its prey. Once again, Syber fired after snapping his fingers, though once again, his victim failed to react in time. "Alright, that's the end of that. Bet she's got more groots upstairs, but first I have to-"

Syber almost didn't avoid a barrage of Assault Rounds from his left. "What?! Where did that guy come from?" Though Syber rolled out of the way in time, one bullet hit his shoulder and another grazed cheek. "I can't hear his footsteps, just like Samir- Wait, lemme see…" Syber took a sneak peak while the guy reloaded. It was as he feared: silent sneakers. "Only one way to tackle his sort." Syber stood up and yelled out a question: "WHAT ARE THOSE?" Somehow, that got the guy to stop shooting for a second to answer. "These shoes are a rare drop from an obscure sidequest, but I got them from a rare gear collector in Slinger-" Next thing he knew, Syber's blade was sticking out of his chest. "Freaking moron…" As it turns out, Syber dropped that guy's rifle. "This is that 3 Star Rarity AK I considered buying a while back. High power, but it's heavy and its magazine is pretty lackluster. Definitely selling this…"

* * *

 **Oasis Ruins - Top Floor…**

Gunner-X noticed half her party was dead. "Yikes, that was fast." Said another one of her guys, a red-haired playboy-looking dude with a top-notch shotgun. "Cute and tough, I see. Not bad…" A hand gesture was all it took for her guys to spread out and position themselves across the floor. As for the lady herself, she turned around and stood her ground…

* * *

 **A few steps below...**

On his way up, Syber had found a floor map. "So all floors have a long hallway in front of the stairs, eh? Easy access, I guess, but they'll see me coming from a mile-" A bullet flew next to his left ear, possibly on cue. Syber looked ahead and saw her standing on the opposite end of the aforementioned long hallway. "Wait, ain't this the 11th Floor? What happened to floors 12 through 16?"

The damage to this floor was several times worse than the rest. No ceiling, broken walls and floor tiles all over, not to mention those wood patches didn't look stable. "Surely you've seen the outside the building, no?" Syber got the point, but his concern was now on the prediction line on his chest. It didn't sway in the least, almost like she wasn't breathing. "Smart, too… Guess I owe those guys an apology. You're clearly too much for them to handle…"

Syber realized that, unlike before, the tension he felt now was real. "Out of curiosity, do you know who I am?" Syber was just asking some random question to distract her, but what he got was a real surprise. "You're Syber, right? How could I not know you? Thanks to you, Sinon isn't hogging the capital's sniper contracts like she usually does…" She looked into her scope, and moved the sight up to Syber's mouth. "I'd give you a kiss, but this is all the best I can do at the moment…"

Foreseeing Syber's next move, Gunner shot his grenade the second it left Syber's hand. What covered Syber was not plasma, but rather, smoke. Syber dodged the follow-up shots and took cover. "They're monsters, the two of them… WHO THE HELL SHOOTS A GRENADE IN MID-AIR?!" Syber yelled, but she started chuckling. "Oh, come now. Shotgun players do it all the time, no biggie."

Gunner-X whispered on party chat: "White, Red, he's headed your way. Shoot on sight. Black, Blue cover the exit." Her guys nodded, but White noticed she didn't sound alright. "I'm just a little disappointed, is all. Working for her, what a waste…"

* * *

 **Top Floor - Southwest Side…**

Contrary to those guys downstairs, these dudes knew what they were doing. Nooks and crannies were practically combed through. "Can't win without thinking outside the box. Think, think… _Outside?_ Oh yeah, that could work…"

As soon as he found a dead end, Syber laid down on the floor and shot at the wall to his left, screaming as if he had been shot himself. In a second, that same wall was riddled with bullets, then knocked down. "Show yourself!" Yelled the one known as White, but as soon as he did that, an arm sticked out of the debris with a shotgun in hand. It was a split second dodge that left White in the red, but he managed to survive Syber. "Red, get over here!"

Before Syber could finish White off, the playboy-looking Red provided cover fire for his ally, driving Syber away. "Relax, I got this. Pretty sure you-" White tried to stop him from ending that line, but it was no use. "That you need healing." White growled, but Red was right, so he fled towards the main hallway while Red stayed behind to hunt down Syber…

* * *

 **Top Floor - Main Hallway…**

Gunner-X was so focused on the hallway, White touching her shoulder nearly got him killed. "Whatever happened to party chat? Sheesh…" She also wanted to know how did he get back in that condition. "Red covered me in the nick of time. Still, hard to believe a newbie could think of something like that on the fly…"

She got a big health pill from her tiny pouch, which almost looked like one of those old cartoons. "You know, something doesn't add up." White said, but Gunner wasn't paying much attention. "Why didn't he use both guns? He could've killed me there and then- Oh shit!" White turned around to see Red coming into the main hallway… Only it wasn't him, it was Syber using his corpse as a meat shield. "Incoming!" Gunner yelled, dropping the pill in favor of her rifle.

He throws Red onto White, before shooting him. He then took the health pill from White's hand… And disarms Gunner-X. "No sudden moves… Or I cap your ass." Gunner-X, took the threat seriously, seeing the curved tip of the blade near her throat. "Now, let's see about your other two bouncers… Shall we?" She was sorely tempted to try hitting him where the sun don't shine. However, she was also keen on keeping her head, and her supplies. And so, she opted to wait for the right opportunity.

* * *

 **Top Floor - Staircase…**

The remaining bouncers, Black and Blue saw that Gunner-X was being threatened by Syber and opted to shoot at him… Only to discover that he's got her held hostage. "One wrong move, and her head's gonna be splattered all over this room." Syber said, as he changed the sword to gun mode. Both bouncers didn't make a move, but Syber knew they'd realize that was just a game and shoot anyway, so he had to improvise a way out. Nothing but meds on the girl, but he noticed a grenade on Blue's belt. He shot the grenade, taking Blue out, but most importantly, he caused the weakened structure to give in and crumble.

As luck would have it, Black failed to notice the floor beneath him was about to break, and thus he fell to his death. Syber saw a way through that, and Gunner-X was not amused by his expression. "Don't you dare…" Syber ignored that, hopping down the ever-shifting structure. Of course she didn't react well, but she had nowhere to escape. While that extra weight did slow him down, but he eventually made it back to ground level safe and sound for the most part…

* * *

 **Oasis Ruins - In the clear…**

That probably scared the color out of the Deathmatch Jobbers down below, and perhaps some didn't make it, but that was a roleplay inside another game. Gunner was shocked that they were still alive, but that wouldn't last for long. "Sorry, but I only dragged you with me so the debris wouldn't steal the final blow." And then put his gun against her forehead. "Nothing personal, I just really need that rifle." Then he pulled the trigger, ending her there and then.

Checking his inventory, he sighed in relief when he saw it there. "So this is what a 5 Stars gun looks like, eh?" No mistaking it, that was the _SBS "Sand Crown" Rifle_ Sinon told him to find, but that wasn't all. "A new shotgun? Wait, this is that red playboy's gun." He equipped it to get a closer look. "This is a SPEZ-21 Shotgun… Stable, holds plenty of shells… *Fires* Same ratio, only higher level. Might as well put it to good use." Syber put it away and turned around. "Better get out of here before they respawn." Syber ran like hell to get to the cave before sunset kicked in, found his bike right where he parked it and enjoyed the ride back to the Capital.

* * *

 **Capital City - North Side…**

On his way to nearest shop, Syber was got a text from Sinon, whose appointment was over early, so she was waiting for him at her usual bench. However, he came across something else, or rather, someone else, on his way there. "Why, hellooo there. Fancy meeting you here."

It was none other than Gunner-X. "What are you doing here?" Syber asked, but as it turns out, he had it backwards. "This is my respawn point. What are YOU doing here?" Oddly enough, she didn't seem angry. Rather, she seemed… Excited? "I knew you had to be special for her to pick you, but that was over the top!" Yes, Syber didn't know what to think. For all he knew it was an act, but it felt too sincere and natural to be fake. "So listen, I don't know what's the deal with you and Cyan, but-"

Syber stopped her. First off, who was she talking about? "Sorry, little habit of mine. Your boss girl, Sinon. She wears cyan, so I call her Cyan." Second, and Syber said this with an awful lot of conviction, the two are not a thing. "Really? That's so cruel, making you do all the work and not even a hug? Where's the team spirit?" Rude as it was, Syber asked her to get to the point.

"Uhh! Even when you're trying to be rude, you're just so damn adorable! Point in case, I want you to join my squad." Syber shot her down without a thought. "Why not? She treats you like garbage, doesn't she?" Syber would ask how would she know, but it was clear to him that everyone thinks her a heartless bitch. That was getting really annoying, even if it wasn't too far off. "Not gonna join your harem, and that's final. Have a good day, or what's left of it…"

As Syber walked away in the distance, Gunner kept waving with a smile that eventually reverted to a rather ominous look.. "Oh Cyan, when are you going to learn to play with your toys without breaking them? Won't take long, I wager." Then it was back to her usual, relatively pleasant look. "Hm… Maybe I should comfort him once she breaks his heart. Yeah, that'd be a great way to get his contact and everything. Wonder if he's cute like that IRL too?" Gunner sat down and begun texting and calling people, likely her squad and the jobbers…

* * *

 **To Be Continued...**

 **Syber Stats** (Lv. 51)  
 **STR:** 18/ **CON:** 15/ **AGI:** 15/ **DEX:** 1/ **SEN:** 5/ **LCK:** 1

 **Gunner-X Stats** (Lv. 82)  
 **STR:** 25/ **CON:** 3/ **AGI:** 1/ **DEX:** 40/ **SEN:** 10/ **LCK:** 3


	7. Ashley the Roller

The following is a non-profit Fanfiction.

Sword Art Online is owned by A-1 Pictures, Aniplex and Reki Kawahara.  
Please support the official release…

Gale Warriors Chapter 7: Ashley the Roller…

 _The day after my scuffle with that Gunner-X gal, I was tasked with defeating another guy, all part of Sinon's spartan training. Though his name and reputation were questionable at best, a mission revolving around bike races was just what I needed to get my head on the game. Best part is that I had never been to the southern side of the map, but I've heard plenty…_

Syber arrived at the Road Sea, a chaotic highway made up of broken, disjointed chunks of road. Though that confused the boy at first, it was fun nonetheless. Like the whole zone was a sandbox for bikers and Mad Max references. After finding the spot for the race, Syber waited for a good 40 minutes. No, he didn't sit around doing nothing for that long, his attention spam would kill him. "Who knew racing in straight lines could be so much fun… But seriously, where is this guy? At this rate I might have to take on those Quests that NPC gives to kill time."

Right on cue, but far from time, this dope-looking biker wearing a skull helmet and biker jacket showed up. His boots and gloves had spikes, and though his bike looked like a two wheel model, it was actually a three-wheeler with joint back tires. "I hear someone's looking for a whole lotta trouble. That you?" He asked, to which Syber looked at a dossier and asked "I'm looking for a guy named… Er… Ashley?" To which the guy snapped his fingers, and a group of bikers in various gear came from behind him and surrounded Syber. "That answer ya question, runt?"

Ashley then leaned on his bike and crossed his arms. He seemed like he was checking Syber out, which led the lad to assume he was about to mistake him for a girl. "So, what do you want? Out with it boyo." Surprised, Syber inquired as to why he didn't joke about his looks. "It takes real balls to U-turn in a tri-wheeler like ya did in there. Even if ya was a chick, calling you one would be like an insult to mah pride." And it seemed like his thugs agreed with that notion.

Impatient from the time he had to kill, Syber went straight to the point. "You. Me. Race. Now." Ashley let out a rough chuckle, his punks followed suit until he told them to shut it. "This the deal: me and the gang are about to do a Royale Race. Ya can either join the pot, or beat it." Syber pondered about this for a second, then he asked about this pot. "Lizard, educate this piece of Roadkill on the pot." Ashley backed out and their mechanic stepped in. Long story short, pay to race and winner takes all. "Today's pot is 5000 Credits. With you, the pot will be 80.000-"

Out of the blue, Ashley kicked his pal out of the way to talk. "Oh yeah, I put an extra 20.000 on the pot to make the prize a nice round 100k. Am I a great boss or what?" All the bikers begun cheering on cue, save for Syber and the one known as Lizard, who was still getting up. It wasn't that much, but another 6-digit paycheck would work wonders for Syber, so he didn't think twice before putting his cash on that skull-adorned pot. "Alright, gimme that map, let's see where I'm going…"

* * *

 **Road Sea - Royale Race Starting Point…**

For a climatic race, that track didn't look very imposing, but it WAS a battle royale, so it was likely a deliberate choice so racers could focus on shooting a bit more. "Word around is that Ash ain't the best shot around, but his bike skills are enough to make him a top player." Try as he might, it was hard to work a plan around that problem. Simply winning this race wouldn't cut it for his goal, he HAD to be the one to kill Ashley or kiss that 5-star weapon goodbye. " _My bike doesn't have spikes or armor attached to it, so I'll have to pull out my guns during the race… Or rather, my Gunblade. Maybe I should look into getting myself a sawed-off, or something else I can use while driving…_ "

Ash had fired a loud gunshot that echoed throughout the area, which was meant to be the signal to go. Syber, had a delayed reaction, until he realized that he needed to get moving right away. Lizard had given hand signals to the other cohorts, who seemed to snicker at the prospect. Though, Syber didn't even see the signals, and thought that they were missing the point of a race. The minute he fired his gun, the two backed off and went in two separate directions, leaving Lizard by himself. "Huh… Guess they wanted to take a shortcut. Oh well, looks like I'm dealing with you now…" Syber said to himself, before trying to shoot Lizard…

Only to realize that one of the two chronies had just rammed into him, seemingly out of nowhere. "What the-" Before Syber could finish, the second guy came in and rammed him. Syber found it increasingly difficult to maintain control over his bike, so he pressed the brake and re-aligned himself. He continued further onto the track, still not getting closer to Ashley, due to Lizard's careful timing with the other two racers, and their unlikely skill at dodging bullets. Syber tried shooting at the other two, only for them to laugh at him while he kept on missing.

"Dammit!" Syber shouted, before speeding on ahead, and tried going for Lizard, only to once again be blindsided. The two then tried boxing him in… To which Syber's frustration was kicking in. "So, what'cha gonna do, girly-man!?" One of them asked in a mocking tone, before Syber finally decided to just cut the area nearby the tire. "Oops." Syber had then caused him to crash. Syber then aimed for the other's tire, and blew it up. "My bad…" Revving up the bike, he continued onwards, till he finally caught up to Lizard.

"You'll never beat Ash at this rate! Ya might as well quit while you're ahead… Roadkill." Syber took offence to that comment, and decided to ram into the vehicle he was next to… Before breaking and causing the two vehicles to spin out. Syber had shot Lizard in the abdomen, thus knocking him onto the ground. All that left, was Ashley himself. Syber seemed to be at a disadvantage… Seeing that he was unable to catch up to him, at first he tried shooting at the bike, but only a handful of shots actually damaged it.

The two were almost neck and neck at the finish line… When Ashley's bike made it through. Most of the NPCs still cheered, but noticed one thing: Ashley's head was missing. Syber had figured to shoot Ashley in the head, just as he was crossing the finish line. Once Ashley respawned, he looked at Syber before saying "Didn't think you'd hit f**k it. Not bad…" Syber shrugged and responded "Hey, just doing what I can to have fun here." Syber saw that there was a prompt on his screen for all the money in the pot.

"It's yours for the taking, runt. Go ahead, ya earned it." Syber ignored being called a runt, and decided to take the pot. "Well, I got what I came for… So, I'm gonna go now." Syber then got back onto his bike and rode away from the race track. Lizard and the others arrived at the finish line, though a little too late. "So boss, how'd it go?" "Well, let's just say I have… A smidgen of respect for the runt. He's got talent, but he lacks finesse." Ashley looked through his stats, and saw something that unsettled him.

"Hey, guys… Where's my shotgun?" Lizard and the others looked at the equipment slots, and saw the absence of the shotgun he had. "Son of a bitch took your gun!" Ashley tried to think on how that was possible, when another chronie showed the replay of him getting shot in the head. Turns out that, while Syber fired the bullet prior to the end of the race, the bullet only got to Ashley after he crossed the finish line and ended the race. According to one of Ashley's cronies, that got registered as a regular kill, not race kill, so drops were enabled. "Next time I see him… I'm kickin' his ass!"

 _Next, Samir contacted me. This was when he called me to tell me something about Sinon, but for whatever reason he insisted we talk in person. Sinon had a point in ordering me to tackle those assignments solo, but I wasn't about to hand over control of my social life. Sinon's social ineptitude was her problem, not mine…_

* * *

 **Later that Day - Samir's (Relocated) Shooting Range…**

It was surprising how fast Samir got his new place all set, given most of his stuff had to loaded and moved halfway across the world map. As it turns out, Speed Demon leaked his old spot's coordinates out of spite for the duo. "A dungeon with a 5-Star SMGs drop? Isn't that a tad bit specific?" According to Samir, that was a go-to method to flooding places with newbies and casuals. "There's a wide gap between the point where people start taking GGO seriously and the point where they truly start to learn how to play. Such people are often eager to acquire high-end SMGs since those are all they know how to use. Worse yet, many ill-willed players spread false rumors to trick them like this… Makes you wonder how people are even supposed to get good at this game."

It was around this time that Syber stopped his monologue, reminding Samir that he was still busy preparing for the upcoming tournament. "Oh yes, I've noticed. In fact, nearly half this server knows about you." Syber wondered about that, so Samir showed him photos of his recent exploits against Behemoth, Gunner-X and Ashley. "How did you even get these…?"

Samir came across these while investigating something else, but oddly enough he didn't specify the means through which he acquired those images. "The reason I called you here was to make sure she couldn't eavesdrop on you. For you see, I came across a rather curious piece of information while looking through these images…" Samir that batch of images away to show a second set, all from the same locals, though these showed someone else. "I suppose you don't recognize this avatar, do you?"

Indeed, Syber had never seen that person. "So I have a stalker? I'm not seeing your point, Samir…" Not surprised, Samir pulled up public info on that player. "While looking into IRL matters is illegal, knowing when someone is or was online is not. Friend Lists do so constantly. May I see your backlog?" Syber hesitated, but his confusion couldn't compete with his curiosity now that it was piqued, so he followed Samir's instructions to find and copy said data. "Would you look at that…"

A quick glance made Samir's face darken. "I was hoping to be wrong, but this can't be a coincidence. See this?" Samir revealed what Syber assumed to be the ins and outs of this would-be stalker, though off by a couple minutes, they mirrored Sinon's activity perfectly. "Are you implying what I think you're implying…?" The lad inquired nervously, though Samir stated all he had was circunstancial evidence at best. "I don't mean to accuse anyone, but if my guess is correct… I believe this training Sinon is giving you may have an ulterior motive." Samir pulled a couple videos, stream recordings from the previous BoB.

 _It was almost comical. Everyone tried to warn me about Sinon, but the more they spoke ill of her, the less I seemed to care. For all I knew, they were either jealous of her, or didn't know her very well. Turns out I didn't know her either. Samir kept explaining things, but the footage alone made it clear: Sinon lost to Gunner-X in the previous BoB Prelims and then to Ashley in the battle royal. Not to mention she was vastly outclassed by Yamikaze and XeXeed, who were too busy killing one another to put her out of her misery. For a prideful personality like Sinon, those two weekends must've been hell._

"She had me kill those people out of spite…?" Shocked, Syber ran off without hearing what Samir had to say. Perhaps it was for the best, though it certain didn't prepare him for what was about to happen…

* * *

 **The Next Day - Outside the Echo Ruins…**

When Sinon arrived, she demanded to know why they were meeting out in the middle of nowhere. "And where is that stupid biker's shotgun?" Syber looked a bit lost in thought, but he gestured her to wait a minute. "While you're busy thinking, I suppose I should give you your next assignment… I want a Five Star SMG." Syber raised an eyebrow at that request. "I find it funny how you manage to know the locations of each and every one of these Five Star Weapons you keep telling me to get you."

"Isn't Hecate a five star weapon?" Sinon then responded "Well, let's just say in the wrong hands, they could prove to be quite dangerous." Sinon went to inspect Syber a little closer and asked "Is everything alright? I mean, I heard you won some pretty big race… So, that should be something righ-" Suddenly, Syber puts a finger to her lips, which starts to anger her. "Funny that you mentioned it… Considering I didn't win the race."

Sinon pushes his finger away and replies "What…? Of course you won. I… Uh, heard it from a contact who-" Syber interrupted her once more. "You mean this person, right?" Syber showed one of the pictures he got from Samir, followed by the from Gunner-X's tower. "How about you introduce me to this person? You know I just LOVE meeting new people." Sinon was at a loss, so Syber went on. "And once we're all acquainted, why don't you tell me a story? Like, say… That time you lost to Gunner and Ash in the last BoB?"

What Syber failed to noticed was that Sinon wasn't the one nervous. Her silence was one filled with fury, culminating in a cold glare that spoke to Syber. It was at that moment that Syber realized… He was about to get effed up. "Should've taken care of that prancy cowboy when I had the chance…" She murmured in a furious tone, before shoving her SMG against Syber's nose.

"I had sixty bullets loaded when I killed a randie on my way here. Reaching for your gun, I see. Adorable." She gestured for him to hand it over, he complied. "I usually remember to count, but I forgot this time. It happens. Especially when ungrateful little chumps start acting all high and mighty. Now… Did I use the whole magazine… Or just 59 rounds?" Seeing her cold grin made Syber freeze with fear. He was sorely tempted to reach for his gunblade, which she neglected as per usual, but one glance at her eyes kept him from trying. Sinon asked how did Syber get those pictures, or rather, how Samir got 'em. "He didn't say."

"Liar… Hmph, doesn't matter. Hand over the other shotgun, or I'll just kill you till it drops." She wasn't surprised by his refusal, but when he inquired about her revenge, she sort of laughed for a bit. "I don't care about revenge, I'm just eliminating the competition. Something I should've done ages ago." Hearing that finally did it. The part of Syber that wanted to believe Sinon kicked the bucket, possibly for good. "You're…" "A cold bitch? Yes, I get that often. See if I care…"

She begun walking away slowly, but her aim was still on him. "Move an inch and you're swiss cheese." When she got to her bike, she pulled out her other gun and punched a hole into Syber's bike. "Well, now I'm going to give you a choice: drop out of BoB. Or I'll put up a bounty so fat… Your life will become a living hell." And with that, she sprayed Syber. He dodged, obviously, but she left the range of his gun before he could fire a single round.

After recomposing himself, or whatever passed for that, Syber took a step towards his bike only for it to explode. Knocked back by the explosion, he didn't bother getting up a second time. "I guess I should've listened…" A few minutes later, he texted Samir a single line.

 **SYBER:** You were right.

 _And thus, I exit the game… Feeling like I've been kicked in the dirt. All just because I wanted to believe that someone like her actually gave a shit._

 **To Be Continued...**


	8. Syber vs BoB Round 1

The following is a non-profit Fanfiction.

Sword Art Online is owned by A-1 Pictures, Aniplex and Reki Kawahara.

Please Support the official release…

Gale Warriors Chapter 8: Syber vs BoB

 _After that unsightly scene, I logged out and… Well, nothing. I spent the rest of that day in bed, mopey over what happened. Then Friday came, class ended and I walked home at a snail's pace. Probably not my best idea, but I think it's clear I wasn't thinking for once…_

"Hey babe, you're looking mighty fine-" Some randie from another school tried his hand, and it goes without saying he'd walk home disappointed, but Sakon didn't punch him. As a matter of fact, it didn't seem like even he noticed that was a pick-up line. He just kept walking while that randie called it quits, "sheesh, what's her problem…?" That randies' pals wondered, but their conversation quickly changed to something else…

 _Something worth noting about my walk home is that I couldn't figure what to do next to save my life. Believe it or not, that was rare coming from me. Maybe that's why those moments are the ones that linger in my mind the most, even if these moments tend to be empty and easy to forget…_

* * *

 **Inside GGO - Pre-BoB Live Party…**

Though the actual prelims were only Saturday, some of the more… Publicly accepted contestants threw a party the night before the event, likely to try and convince the rest of them that not all top players were anti-social pricks or sociopaths. For whatever reason, Samir came to the party. "Syber? What brings you here?" When Syber looked around, he seemed just as surprised, like he didn't even realize he came to a party until he got there. "When did I…?"

Before either boys could make sense out of that situation, Dyne called Syber. In doing so, the party's attention shifted to his person, which caused word to spread around and before they knew it, there were loads of scouts and even a reporter from that one MMO news website Syber recognized had gathered around him. Several of them were asking about his participation in the BoB, which Syber had forgotten about after yesterday's episode.

He turned to leave the pub, only for the crowd to bar his path. However, Samir pulls Syber away from the anxious crowd and says "Hey now! Don't crowd the poor lad, I reckon he needs a little privacy. Isn't that so, Syber?" Syber looks in Samir's direction and nods before exiting the area and entering a private room with Samir. There, the two sit across from each other, with Syber leaning his head onto his crossed arms on the table.

"So, how bad was it?" Syber then looked up at Samir, and answered "Everything about Sinon… You were right about. To be honest, I probably knew deep down that she was using me." Samir raised an eyebrow at Syber's statement, as if to inquire more about what's going on. "I was just so desperate to believe her, after she was the first person who… Didn't assume I was a chick."

Samir then drank the Iced tea from his glass… Which he ordered prior to this meeting. "I know it's stupid but… It felt so good to see someone who didn't assume based on your face. I look like the biggest idiot in all of GGO." Samir finished his drink and then asked "So… What are you going to do about it?" Syber felt as if Samir asked a really dumb question. "What do you mean, what am I gonna do?! Have you seen my loadout!? Nothing but close range weapons that a sniper as good as her can easily destroy."

Before Samir could interject, Syber continued his ranting "Plus, she was the one who picked my loadout right from the get-go, so she knows exactly what my strategy is, and how to decimate it. I should just quit BoB, and just stay out of GGO… It's just a stupid game, there's no reason for me to continue anyway." Before Syber could leave, Samir grabbed his hand and said "Look, how about you give this a shot anyway And who knows… Maybe you'll win."

Syber had pondered that thought, and responded "Fine… I'll go. But don't think I'm gonna see past round 1." He walked out of the private room, and promptly walked past all the crowd members, who were still trying to ask him some dumb questions. Samir looked at his watch and said "If he is to make it through this ordeal, he will need more motivation. But how?" Samir then proceeded to ponder the question he asked himself…

* * *

 **Meanwhile…**

Syber was at the shooting range, just to practice his aim to which he proved his accuracy had significantly improved since he started playing the game. After that, he went to a close range dummy meant for close quarter weapons… And proceeded to go to town on it. " _Why am I doing this? What's the point of me improving myself in the last minute? Besides, nobody's gonna miss me when I leave GGO for good. As far as_ _ **She's**_ _concerned, I could just be sitting down on that bench just watching the whole sh-bang on a television or something like that."_ Syber thought to himself, before he decided he had enough practice.

* * *

 **The Next Day...**

It was main event time, and the BoB Preliminaries were about to begin. Though, Syber still seems to not be wanting any part of it. He sat around waiting for his inevitable first match to begin, hoping to get it over with…

"So, this is how you choose to start things? By sulking and waiting for the match?" Syber turned and saw that Samir had shown himself as a spectator. "Leave me alone. I've already lost, what more do you want?" Samir sat across from Syber and said "Look, what I'm about to say, may shock you… But I believe Sinon is afraid of you." Syber scoffed at that remark, thinking it was some kind of messed up joke.

"I'm serious." Syber then shows Samir his loadout and asks "What part of this loadout gives her any reason to be afraid?" Samir looks it over quickly before saying "How curious for her to pick a gunblade of all things, no?" Syber closed the loadout screen and responded "It's a mid-range pistol in gun form, but in blade form it can only do close range. So no, I don't see how this will factor in my supposed victory."

"I also happened to notice that you wear some heavy armor instead of a bulletproof vest, and you have a photon gauntlet equipped on your person." Syber sighed before continuing to ask the real question "What, does this have anything to do with your theory? Cause like I said before, my arsenal is weak against her's." Samir shook his head at Syber's doubt and then said "We both know that's wrong, don't we? Miss X?"

Suddenly, Gunner-X had entered the scene, much to the surprise of Syber who was surprised to see her wearing something other than her desert attire. Said attire was more akin to casual wear like a short sleeved shirt, and what appeared to be denim jeans. "Oh god… I'm so sorry for stealing your gun!" Syber exclaimed while bowing his head in apology to Gunner-X, who simply patted him on the head and said "No need to apologize. Besides, you did put up a pretty good fight for cute guy like yourself…"

Syber had thought to himself " _Why does she have to word that last part like that?"_ "And besides, that was a gift from me to you. Honestly, you're the victim here. I mean, Cyan had pretty much tricked me too. Why, she lent me her Thunder Arrow a while before meeting you, and the next time we met up… She scoffed at it with a Hecate!" Syber rolled his eyes before muttering "Joy…"

"It was enough for me to make it through the prelims of last year's BoB, but now I doubt that I'd stand a chance against these monsters… Would you be a dear and retrieve it, so you can lend it to me?" Syber shook his head and answered "Even if I tried, she would still kick my ass before I could even get it. Her strategy is probably going to keep me at a distance." Gunner-X looked at Syber with skepticism before saying "On a random terrain that she can't hope to predict or plan in advance? Darling, you're far more of an adapter than she ever was."

Syber didn't really think much on that statement sighed once again. "All I do is make this shit up as I go along." He looks back at Samir, who hasn't said a word during their whole exchange. "I imagine you would also like to settle an unfinished matter before you go, so, I invited this gentleman here as well…" Samir then points to the biker known as Ashley.

Syber looks up at Ashley, and stands to apologize to him. "Save it. The cowboy here told me enough." Ashley had gestured Syber to sit back down, while Syber was very confused. "So… You're not here to kick my ass for stealing your gun?" Ashley had shook his head to confirm. "Honestly, I don't even remember her all that well. I mean… I whooped her, yeah. But, I've killed A LOT of people in this game. But you, you were hella crazy, man. There's no way I was gonna forget a guy like you."

Syber was about to say something, but Ashley raised his index finger and said "But, this is this and that, is that. So quit your whinin' and go clean up your crap!" Syber clenched his hands into fists, before standing up and saying "Look, I don't get why you guys think I'm this badass! I mean… Who the hell do you think I am?!" Both Gunner-X and Ashley then pointed at him before answering "The guy who beat us!"

He looked at the two, and back at Samir, before asking "Do you really think I can do this?" Samir was about to say something, when the runner up of last year's BoB entered the scene. "Are you the one who called me?" The man asked Samir, who got up and shook the man's hand. "Ah, yes… Thanks for coming." Syber then looked at him and said "Aren't you the guy who placed second in the last BoB?!" The man sighed at Syber and responded "Yes, thank you for that painful reminder…"

Syber felt a bit guilt in reminding Yamikaze of his failure. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to! Honest!" Yamikaze then put a hand on Syber's shoulder and pointed to Samir before saying "AT ANY RATE… This guy told me about Sinon's plot. Hard to believe someone would hold a grudge, I mean, I didn't even fight her. And I remember pretty much everyone I fight…" Samir then stood next to Yamikaze and said "As I summarized, you were too busy with the late XeXeed to notice all her failed attempts at sniping you."

Yamikaze had raised his eyebrows at that statement. "That's some crazy stuff there… But, all the more reason you need to try your hand against her. If you let her get away with this any longer… It'd give us pros a bad name. We're far from nice, but we're not heartless monsters." Syber then felt a surge of inspiration well up inside of him, and when his name was called through the intercom, he smirked. "Alright, I'll go in there… And I'll kick her ass!"

Syber then stood in the center teleporter, ready for his match… But, before he could be warped, Yamikaze shouted "That's the spirit! And when you make it to the finals, I'll be sure to take you on myself!" Syber gave him a thumbs up, before being teleported away. "Though, I do have to wonder…" Yamikaze started before he and the others turned to Samir. "The last time I was lookin' for someone, it took me a while just to find em'." Ashley said, to which Gunner-X added "Not to mention we're all pretty busy people."

And then, Yamikaze raised the question: "Who are you? And how did you get our contact info?" Samir had offered a plain looking smile, before replying "I'm just a well-informed collector, is all…"

* * *

 **BoB Area 3…**

The area Syber spawned in was a large forest. Filled with several big-ass trees. Syber looked around, hoping to find his opponent. "Great… They had to drop me in the middle of a damn forest." He also looked high into the trees, hoping to see his opponent in the trees. However, a pistol round hit one of the trees next to Syber, to which he identified where the bullet came from. "That was a warning shot! Next time's gonna hit'cha for sure!"

Syber notices that, he's carrying around two pistols as opposed to having a pistol be a sidearm. "You're my opponent? So, who are you and why should I care?" The guy then twirls around his pistols and responds, "Who I am… Is of no consequence. Because, you won't be making it out of here alive! Why? Simply because you'll be my first victim of my **TWIN PISTOL COMBO!** " He continues to twirl around both pistols, as though this were a stunt show.

He started rambling on, as to why he chose two pistols… However, Syber honestly couldn't care less. The rambling went on for minutes on end, and so did the twirling. He looked at his clock, hoping to god that he'll be done ASAP. Syber then decided to load his shotgun with led rounds and approached the guy, while he wasn't paying attention. "...And now, I'll show you my first attack!" He says, before Syber just shoots him in the chest with his shotgun, ending the match.

* * *

 **BoB Lobby…**

Back in the lobby, people were somewhat disappointed with the match. Most were going "Aw…" Due to the lack of hype in said match, and some just started booing. One of the guys even said "That match was so boring, that even the girl who won didn't even care… I mean, just look at her face." Samir saw the man and thought to himself " _Should I tell him? Or do I simply let it go…? I may be polite, but by no means am I a nice person."_

Samir shouted to everyone in the lobby that Syber was in fact, a guy… To which people at first disagreed, but then they started shooting at one another. In a safe zone, neither bullet nor laser nor blast can't reduce a player's HP, but molotov cocktails leave behind firewalls, which may not cause damage either, but people FEEL the burn. Syber had finally gotten back to the lobby, only to see the chaos that unfurled. Pointless bullet rains and fires left and right, angry mobs wailing at each other over something as trivial as his gender. He snuck by most of the combatants and sat down in one of the booths nearby, where he noticed a guy in a cloak just standing there… Watching the carnage.

"What's gotten into these people?" Syber asked the stranger. "A cowboy yelled something, people begun yelling at each other. This continued, until they started shooting one another." Syber continued to look on… "They're all acting like a bunch of animals." The stranger nodded in agreement. However, he turned to face Syber and asked "If I might ask… Who are you?" Syber simply answered "Name's Syber, and you are?"

The stranger merely replied "Death Gun." Syber raised an eyebrow at that name and asked "Is that REALLY your name?" Death Gun shrugged at his question and pointed at the crowd "Look around you… Do you think any of this subtle in the slightest?" Syber looked back at the carnage and replied "Yeah, I think subtlety was thrown out the window, the minute you look and realize the acronym for Bullet of Bullets spells Bob."

Death Gun chuckled a bit at the joke, to which he replied "I didn't have anything better, so that was a good one!" Syber pointed at him and said "Hey, I got somebody to laugh! That's a win in my books! Anyway, nice to meet'cha Death Gun." Syber then held out his left hand, to which Death Gun gave him his left hand as well. "It's a pleasure." After he walked away, Syber noticed that there was an odd looking mark on his left arm. "Huh… Must be a tattoo. Oh well… Tattoos aren't my thing anyway…"

Syber looked over and saw that, Samir was sitting on the other side of the booth he was in, and decided to head over to him. "So, what'd you do this time?" Syber asked Samir, who whispered what he did to him. "Of course it's my fault… Y'know, there was this cloaked guy near the booth I was sitting in. And, he had the strangest name I ever heard of in this game." Samir claimed he's heard many weird names, but when Syber said the name, Samir just clapped. "A new record, no doubt. Was his name all that intrigued you? Don't misunderstand, that alone seems plenty, but it never hurts to ask." Syber pondered for a second, then mentioned he some sort of tattoo on his hand. "Oh, if body marks are what you want, I know a place where you may acquire some."

Syber quickly dismissed the idea, saying tribal dressing wasn't his thing. Might as well dress up in matching uniforms if the point is looking alike, he said. "I'm not sure how I feel about that- Syber. Keep calm. Don't turn around or make any sudden moves." The look on Samir's face said everything. "Is she coming our way?" She wasn't, but the look on her face was… "A nasty piece of work, and I've seen plenty. Has that girl been skipping her beauty sleep?" From the sound of it, the only thing keeping her from falling apart was her own unyielding wrath and likely a lot of caffeine. "I'm sorry for not being able to analyze her moves. Your friends kept me busy with their questions. Is it that surprising that I happened to know someone who could get me in contact with them on a short notice?" Syber didn't know what to say, and honestly he could care less, but only a tiny bit.

"Now's not the time, Samir. What am I facing next?" The two shift their focus to Samir's notes and start processing their strategies…

 ** _= TO BE CONTINUED_**

 **Supplementary Data**

 **Syber** Lv 58

STR 21 / CON 17 / AGI 17 / DEX 1 / SEN 5 / LCK 1

New Gear: None (Returned Ashley his Shotgun)

 **Samir** Lv 45 (Didn't grind once)  
STR 10 / CON 9 / AGI 10 / DEX 10 / SEN 11 / LCK 1  
New Gear: Irrelevant (it's all niche garbage anyways)

 **Sinon** Lv?  
STR ? / CON ? / AGI ? / DEX 40 / SEN ? / LCK ?

New Gear: Unknown


End file.
